Proofreading

“ Hi Susan, by all means remove the "transcription project" tag for the proofread & transcluded works. It's really there to encourage people to do a little proofreading. Once a work has been transcluded, then the link to the source is available more logically from the work. The green symbol (and any of the companions , , in the series) are an old way to indicate how complete a work is. Now that we've got the Proofread extension, they're being phased out here. ”

“ The elements of the project are standardized and consistency is enforced. This applies to the page layout, font sizes, article headers. Breakdown of the approach used to proofread The volumes have no table of contents and this was constructed by paging through and collecting article titles, authors, tagging pages containing images and tables - and proofreading the indexes which are located at the back of each volume. ”

“ Current practice is to host DjVu files at Commons, and then to have the text into our Page: ns as per side by side proofreading as that enables easy proofreading, and ongoing comparison. Best example of that is any of our Wikisource:Proofread of the Month. We have departed from the expectation that for casual or collective proofreading that someone will hunt up a work to proofread, or even hunt up the right edition. ”

“ Proofreading without pagescans is silly, because one person will do a few chapters and another person will do a few chapters, but they are like to be different editions. see User talk:70.240.250.38 for the most recent example. John Vandenberg (chat) 15:12, 7 July 2008 (UTC) Well, Using DJVU files and the Page: namespace is a good thing, but it is a different issue. What I ask here is 1. What status do we give to PG texts? Is it reliable enough to be considered as proofread? If a WS contributor proofread a PG text, do we consider that the text is proofread by two persons? ”

“ Jeremy Belknap, in his Papers, says that there are four things necessary to constitute a man: “first, he should build a house; second, he should write a book; third, he should get a child; fourth, he should plant a tree.”
Now, let us not only do all these things prescribed, but let us supplement them by four others, which the proof-reader thinks are just as, if not more, important; namely: let our chirography be readable, our spelling correct, our punctuation faultless, and our rhetoric such that “he who runs may read.” ”

“ Proof-reading.—In technical books especially, good proof-reading is essential. We use every effort to submit proofs which follow closely the original copy, but the experienced author knows that he himself cannot exercise too much care in proof-reading. The amount of damage which has been done to the reputation and sales of many otherwise excellent technical books, by carelessness in proof-reading, would astound the inexperienced author.
One set of galley and one set of page proofs which the author receives are marked with the printer's corrections, generally in green or red ink. ”

“ Nearly all manuscript copy is indebted to the compositor and proof-reader for the proper punctuation; and many errors in spelling, made by men who probably know better, but write hastily, are silently corrected in the printing-office. Contradictions, errors of fact, anachronisms, imperfect sentences, solecisms, barbarisms, are modestly pointed out to the author by the proof-reader’s “quære,” or by a carefully worded suggestion; and, most usually, the proof is returned without comment,—and none is needed,—corrected according to the proof-reader’s intimations. ”

“ A proof-reader, on the contrary, can not choose his subjects. He must undertake what is ready for him, whether it be some ordinary work, using common words only, or a scientific book filled with unfamiliar words.59 Authors of scientific works often make abominable copy. They do not realize that the terminology so well known by them is not equally well known to the workers in printing-offices, and the most particular words are frequently written more carelessly than the common words in their manuscript. ”

“ The proof-reader is, however, or should be, perfectly callous to all captious criticisms and foolish comments; he need care nothing for “harshness” or other nonsense, provided his work is well and thoroughly done. Let no nervous or touchy man meddle with proof-reading.
For the especial benefit of our non-professional readers, we will here point out the usual routine in regard to proofs. The editor or publisher of a book or periodical sends to the printer such portions of reading-matter or manuscript as he can, from time to time, conveniently supply. ”

“ The true proof-reader should not only be a practical printer, but he should be a lover of literature, familiar with the classics of all languages, with the results accomplished by science, and indeed with every subject that concerns his fellow-men. When an author prepares a work for the press, he often uses many abbreviations, his capitalization is frequently incorrect, his spelling occasionally not in accordance either with Worcester or Webster, his punctuation inaccurate, his historical and biographical statements careless, and his chirography frequently very bad. ”

“ The best proof-reader must confess to some unguarded moments; and it would be very awkward, after having had two hundred and forty chapters stereotyped, to find that two chapter V.’s have been cast, that every subsequent chapter is numbered one less than it should have been, and that compositor and proof-reader have exactly followed copy.
Examine your manuscript carefully with reference to the points. Avoid the dash when any other point will answer your purpose. A manuscript that is over-punctuated occasions more perplexity than one that is scarcely pointed at all. ”

“ If proof-sheets present peculiarities of spelling and language, such for instance as appear in ancient works, and which are affected or indulged in by some moderns, every word whose correctness he doubts and is unable to verify, should be referred by the proof-reader to author or editor. ”

“ I say that too much is expected of the proof-reader. He is expected to take the babe of the author and put it in a suitable dress for the public. The author should do it. Now and then you get an idea of how badly copy is prepared when out of revenge some newspaper editor prints it as the author sends it in. The reader, when he reads that copy, printed as it is written, with a misuse of italics, a violation of the rules of composition, lack of punctuation, etc., is astonished that a man of education can be so careless. ”

“ The time to be spent in reading a proof should be governed, in a great measure, by its importance. While in certain classes of ordinary work the reader is not expected to detect more than the plainer errors and make his proof correct to copy, in work of value he should read critically and try to discover more serious blunders than spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc. But speed should never be greater than is consistent with practical correctness.
A single reading of figures, either in columns or lines, should be sufficient. ”

“ The proof-reader, like every one else, must get at least the foundation of his knowledge through the medium of books. His practical use of knowledge, his faculty for instant perception of error, and his equally useful faculty for merely challenging what an author may wish to keep unchanged—all these must be acquired or confirmed by experience ”

“ The imperfection is in the mind of the writer, not in the language—unless he can give a better example. If this author had omitted this section of his work, he would have shortened his book to the extent of half a page, and he would not have afforded a text for preaching against imperfection of mental training. If a thoroughly qualified proof-reader had suggested proper corrections, in the proper way, it must be that the matter would have been bettered; and every proof-reader should know how to make such suggestions. ”

“ Though every educated English-speaking person is expected to know how to use his own language correctly, no one needs such knowledge more than the proof-reader does. Very commonly matters of form, as punctuation, capitalization, compounding, and almost entirely the division of words at the ends of lines, are left to the proof-reader’s decision. ”

“ Times, however, have changed since, as the elder D'Israeli wrote. “it became the glory of the learned to be correctors of the press to eminent printers,” and to-day in every printing office the proofreader is found—an unobtrusive functionary, known to publishers, authors, editors and journalists, but for the most part unknown to the general reading public; a functionary who yet does useful, often valuable, and always indispensable work. The influence of good proof-reading upon the character of book, newspaper and general printing is too often underrated. ”

“ The “third proof” is now sent to the author, editor, or publisher, with so much copy as may cover it, the copy-holder being careful, however, to retain the “mark-off”; i. e., the sheet on which is marked off the place where the next “first proof” is to begin. But when the work is of such sort as not to require extraordinary care, the second proof is sent out, a single reading by copy being deemed sufficient. If the work is read twice by copy, only one reader should attend to the punctuation. ”

“ Close attention should be given to this process of “revising”; it is not enough to see that a wrong letter has been taken out, and a right one put in; in the line where a change has been made, all the words should be compared, and also the line above and the line below a correction,—since in correcting an error among movable types, some of the types may move when they ought not, and get misplaced.
As what escapes the notice of one observer may be perceived by another, this second proof is again “read by copy” by another proof-reader and assistant, and a second time corrected and revised. ”

“ Therefore the proof-reader must be qualified at all points for correcting not only the compositor’s work, but also that of the author.
The particular matter that we are considering is not likely to come into question before it is taken up in the composing-room, where the foreman may notice the arrangement if it is wrong, and consult some one for authority to change it. Many foremen would be likely to make it right without consultation, and then the question would arise only if the customer directed a change on the proofs. ”

“ All proofs are taken on hand presses and are read by the proof-readers before they are submitted to the authors. The work of these proof-readers is of great importance, and only men and women of high intelligence can properly perform this work, which requires patience, care, and long educational and technical training. They are responsible for the correction of all misspelling, grammatical errors, mistakes in punctuation, the misuse of type, and other details. In fact, the prestige and success of any press is in no small measure due to the high efficiency of its proof-readers. ”

“ Each proof-reader is assisted by a copy-holder who reads in a monotone everything in the copy including punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphing, so that the proof-reader may see whether or not the printed form corresponds exactly to the copy. In smaller offices editors and reporters read proof, comparing the printed form with the copy only when it is necessary. Every one who writes for publication should know how to correct proof, so that he may be able to do this work quickly and accurately when occasion demands it. ”

“ Writers for the press who themselves examine proof-sheets of their works, should familiarize themselves with proof-reading technics. An author who received for the first time some proof-sheets returned them “clean”—apparently having detected no errors. ”

“ As many blunders were made by the monks in transcribing and re-transcribing the ancient MSS., the assistance of the [21] corrector, or proof-reader, was as much needed then as now; the wrong words were erased with a sponge or with a knife, and the corrected words inserted. Solomon, three thousand years ago, said, “Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” This was uttered at a time when few read or studied, and when all books were in manuscript, the printer’s art being then unknown. To-day everybody reads, studies, and writes ”

“ In the cases cited, and in very many others, the proof-reader has shown himself to be “a power behind the throne;” for, without his aid, innumerable errors would have occurred.
A writer on Punctuation, many years ago, said that, “Perhaps there never existed on any subject, among men of learning, a greater difference of opinion than on the true mode of punctuation, and scarcely can any two persons be brought to agree on the same method; some making the pause of a semicolon where the sense will only bear a comma ”

“ If any one is fortunate enough to have a first-class proof-reader in his employ, he will be foolish to let that reader go, if money—within reasonable bounds—will keep him. Fifty men may try to fill the place and fail before another really competent man is found.
10 A large proof-room should have its own foreman—not merely a head reader, but one actually in authority, just as any foreman should be, and with higher pay than the other readers have, and also with the chief responsibility. ”

“ Compositors should take every precaution to prevent the soiling of proof sheets, as it is necessary for the reviser to see clearly every mark on the margin of a proof after it has been corrected.
Do not try to cover up or hide an accident. After a proof is read the first time, if a word or line is pied, or if a “dropout” occurs, or any accident happens to the type, it is the duty of the workman to call attention to it in writing on the latest proof sheet, whether it be a galley revise, page revise, stone revise, press revise, or foundry revise. ”