Editing and Proofreading

Madz B. Quiamco ASIAN INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION

Editing yourself and Others

EDITING

• Revising = “Re-seeing” = Developing a critical zoom lens = Shifting from broad overview

to minute detail

• Your 2nd (and last) chance to improve your write-up

EDITING

• Does the writing have a clear sense of purpose?

• Are the claims accurate and consistent?

• Is the argument complete? • Have you supported each point with

adequate evidence? • Is the information relevant?

Levels of editing 1. CONTENT

• Does content logically progress from one sentence or paragraph to the next?

• Is the write-up taking the reader somewhere?

EDITING 2. FLOW

Ex: Flow Emelita, 49, started to work at a Dole Philippines pineapple processing facility in 1979. After 11 years, she was compelled to voluntarily “resign” from the plant. Regular workers were being replaced by “contractuals”. The company was busting the workers’ union. More than 3,000 workers resigned. Today, her husband, Romeo, still works at the processing plant and one of their five children labors as a harvester. Dole provided jobs, yes, but she asks, does the family have a future?

EDITING

3. STRUCTURE

• Do all the paragraphs mesh together to form a cogent (convincing, valid) whole?

• Are the major divisions and sub-

points presented in the best order possible?

EDITING

• Is the language precise and appropriate to the writing context?

• Is the meaning clear?

• Are the sentences fluent, tight, and well-constructed?

• Is the grammar correct?

• Are there no spelling and punctuation errors?

4. LANGUAGE

EDITING

• Is the tone (formal, informal, persuasive) consistent throughout?

• Have you checked for gender bias?

• Is humor properly used?

5. TONE

EDITING Editing – your last chance to improve

• coherence

– when sentences, ideas, and details fit together

• conciseness – ideas are expressed clearly in as few words as possible

EDITING Tools for improving coherence: • Repetition of key terms or

phrases • Synonyms • Pronouns • Transitional words • Sentence patterns

(Example)

EDITING Ways to improve conciseness

• Eliminate unnecessary modifiers Any particular type of dessert is fine with me. Any dessert is fine with me.

• Change phrases into single words The department showing the best performance… The best-performing department…

EDITING • Change unnecessary that, who,

which clauses into phrases The system that is most efficient and

accurate… The most efficient and accurate system…

• Avoid overusing expletives It is the early bird that catches the worm. The early bird catches the worm.

EDITING

• Use active rather than passive verbs An account was opened by Mrs. Torres. Mrs. Torres opened an account.

• Avoid overusing noun forms of verbs The function of this team is the investigation of

dishonest deals. This team investigates dishonest deals.

EDITING

• Reword unnecessary infinitive phrases The shortage of tellers caused many customers

to become dissatisfied with the service. The teller shortage has caused customer

dissatisfaction.

• Replace roundabout expressions with direct ones

In accordance with your request… As you requested…

EDITING

• Omit words that explain the obvious

Imagine a mental picture of someone engaged in the intellectual activity of trying to learn what the rules are for how to play the game of chess.

Imagine someone trying to learn the rules of chess.

Proofreading: the Big Little Job

PROOFREADING • Rechecking content every time it

moves from one production phase to another. - from editor’s approved manuscript to artist’s layout - from Microsoft Word to Adobe InDesign CS3 - from your laptop to the printer’s production machines - BEFORE APPROVAL FOR PRINTING

PROOFREADING

• Making sure that content is faithful to approved copy

Thou shalt not edit on proof.

13th Commandment:

PROOFREADING

What to look out for:

•Missing content – last lines of paragraphs, missing last paragraphs in a column, missing words at end of lines

•Extra punctuations, hyphens, and spaces inserted in odd places

•Unwanted characters • Improperly converted symbols

PROOFREADING

What to look out for: • Font substitutions • Spelling errors • Line-break hyphenations • Faulty alignment • Missing and corrupt graphics

PROOFREADING Avoid producing orphans and widows

My Kitty

orphan

• Orphan - last line in a paragraph printed on the next page

My Kitty

PROOFREADING Avoid producing orphans and widows

widow

• Widow – title of an article or first line of a paragraph on one page and its main body on the next page.

PROOFREADING • Double-check names, addresses,

phone numbers, dates • Proofread all charts, tables, totals,

numbers • Make sure formatting details are

consistent throughout - Paragraph indents - Headings - Fonts used

Universal proofreading practices • To delete an item – strike through

with a single line, use symbol or write “delete” on margin.

• To restore item marked to be

deleted, write “stet” on margin and underscore item with dots.

PROOFREADING

PROOFREADING

• To insert a word or phrase - write it on margin and indicate where it’s to be inserted with a caret (^ ).

• If there’ s not enough space, type

correction on a separate sheet and indicate where it is to be inserted.

PROOFREADING

• Don’t write at the back of proof page. • Don’t enter corrections between lines

of type. Place corrections on the margin; only symbols among text.

• Don’t use block or capital letters when

writing corrections.

Common proofreading symbols

Thank you! And now, for

the exercises!

Exercise 1 Exercise 2