Translation and Editing of Text | 0

RAMON
MAGSAYSAY
MEMORIAL
COLLEGES
MARBEL
INC.
COLLEGE OF TEACHER
EDUCATION

ENGL 473:
Translation and Editing of Text
 Translation and Editing of Text | 1

Module 7: Basic Copyediting and

Proofreading
Time Table: 5 hours

Topic Learning Outcomes:

a. differentiate copyediting from proofreading;
b. evaluate text that need to be proofread and edited; and
c. perform basic copyediting and proofreading tasks

Enabling Activity

Error Recognition.

Instructions: The following sentences below contain erroneous words or phrases. Identify the errors
for each number by encircling them.

1. Tennis is such interesting game that people all like to play it. 

2. Being a child, Mr. Johnson enjoyed Jazz and Blues.
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3. The factory where a great quantity of color TV sets made next year is

now being built in the southern suburb of Shanghai.
4. Those staff having finished their tasks may have a rest.
5. We should practice reading English loudly every day.
6. I have no difficulty to study the art of management.
7. I'm not going to attend this meeting held in Hong Kong next month.
8. The agreement looks fine to us, but our attorney would like to review it
before it will be signed.
9. I am not certain I know what means that.
10. Are you certain the back of this van is enough wide to hold the large box?

Deepen!

Copyediting and Proofreading

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Copyediting

Editors are everywhere. They are at work wherever words are being written and published
—words about the universe, the world, our society, and our human sojourners here. Almost
everybody thinks anybody can be an editor. Most editors think few can be good editors.

Many good editors sometimes think nobody fully appreciates them. Yet any editor knows
that many people have no literary skills, that some among them, quite a few in fact, appreciate
what a good editor contributes.

The Copyeditor’s Job

What do copyeditors do? A copyeditor is assigned somebody else’s words to work on and
must pour effort and thought into making them literate and clear. Copyeditors may like or dislike,
approve or disapprove of the subject matter, but it is their job to make improvements where
improvements are due. These contradictions are familiar to copyeditors, most of whom are working
for money, earning a living, and thus must apply their skills to the project before them.

Selflessness and anonymity are standard qualities for copyeditors; in the vineyard they are
laborers whose names will not be on the wine bottle. Sometimes they would be pleased to own up
to the vintage; other times they are glad to be unknown.

The Copyeditor’s Stance

What kind of person is this, who works behind the scenes, grease someone else’s axle?

The good copyeditor, above all, is a fusspot—one who cares. This is not to say that other
workers do not care. They have their cares. In the arena of writing, the editor cares about honest
expression, about order, about clarity, and about logic. Copyeditors hate non sequiturs and
arguments ad hominem, ambiguities and muddy thinking, inconsistencies and badly proportioned
parts, jargon, cant, and gobbledygook. They believe that commas and semicolons matter, that
spelling a word correctly is important. And they are pleased to help. The copyeditor’s approach,
then, begins with “I care”—about the words, sentences, and paragraphs in the articles, pamphlets,
and books that are helped along toward publication. The editor’s charge is to make sure that the
words written will be comprehensible to those who read them. Communication. No small aim.

In this light, it seems reasonable that editors need to develop a working enthusiasm for the
ideas they are dealing with. The good editor tries to make a murky idea clear and to make sure a
brilliant idea sparkles. The professional editor tries to help any author to say what is meant and of
course hopes that the author then means what has been said.

KINDS OF EDITORS
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Various editors may deal with manuscripts at different stages of the publishing process
depending on the procedures at a publishing house.

A procurement, or acquisitions, editor searches out the manuscript on behalf of the

publisher. A production editor may handle the manuscript from the signing of a contract to publish it
through to production, including copyediting and checking proof, or may refer it at one point to a
copyeditor for detailed scrutiny. An executive editor often finds and helps to develop a new work;
such editors sometimes keep a close watch over the product from start to finish. At some
publishers one person may wear several of these hats. A managing editor usually oversees the
copyeditors in an editing department. A copyeditor closely reads and carefully corrects the
manuscript, word by word, character by character straight through.

The Value of Copyediting

Discover!

Instructions: Research for the value of copyediting. How does copyediting affect the
following persons below? How does it impact them?

 Copyeditors
 Authors/writers
 Readers

Copyediting

Instructions: Access the lesson material linked on the Google classroom.

Additional material: Copyediting symbols

Main Task
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Instructions: Use the proper copy-editing symbols to correct all the mechanical, spelling and style
errors in the following sentences.

During the 1990s, a nine year old girl in Ruston Louisiana won a trophy, 5000 dollars, and a
trip to the United States Capital Bl;dg.

Thomas Shriver Junior an employee of the Roess Company in Fairbanks Alaska has a Ph.D. in
economics and will be here Mon, Tues., & Wed.

Prof. Rebecca Malone of Forty-two Fifth Avenue works in the History Department and shares
an office in Rm. 247 of the Humanities Bldg.

Afterwards, 7 persons, all United States citizens, testified that the US navy payed the
Westinghouse Corporation $14,200,000 dollars.

“The Washington Post” reported Tue. That the suspect is White, in her 30’s, about 5 ft., 2
inches tall, and weighs about one hundred pds.

Only one media reported that the President of the National Rifle Assn. met with sixteen
members of the US Congress on August 23, 2008.

During the 1960’s, a committee of the United States Congress estimated that the program
would cost $7 to $8.4 billion dollars.

The boy, age 7, had 42 cents and said his mother, the Mayor, will attend the P.T.A meeting
Nov. 28 if the temperature remains above 0.

It was an unusual phenomena. During the twentieth century, the odds were 9 to 1 that 80 %
of the Mayors would be reelected to a 2nd term.

Moving backwards, the 14 yr old babysitter in martin Tn. Said goodbye, then picked up the
bible and ran towards her home on Roe St.

Deepen!

Proofreading

Proofreading is the final stage of the editing process, focusing on surface errors such as
misspellings and mistakes in grammar and punctuation. You should proofread only after you have
finished all of your other editing revisions.

Why Proofread?

Content is important. But like it or not, the way a paper looks affects the way others judge it. When
you’ve worked hard to develop and present your ideas, you don’t want careless errors distracting your
reader from what you have to say. It’s worth paying attention to the details that help you to make a good
impression.
 Translation and Editing of Text | 6

Most people devote only a few minutes to proofreading, hoping to catch any glaring errors
that jump out from the page. But a quick and cursory reading, especially after you’ve been working
long and hard on a paper, usually misses a lot. It’s better to work with a definite plan that helps you
to search systematically for specific kinds of errors.

Sure, this takes a little extra time, but it pays off in the end. If you know that you have an
effective way to catch errors when the paper is almost finished, you can worry less about editing
while you are writing your first drafts. This makes the entire writing process more efficient.

Try to keep the editing and proofreading processes separate. When you are editing an
early draft, you don’t want to be bothered with thinking about punctuation, grammar, and spelling. If
you’re worrying about the spelling of a word or the placement of a comma, you’re not focusing on
the more important task of developing and connecting ideas.

The Proofreading Process

 Don’t rely entirely on spelling checkers. These can be useful tools but they are far from
foolproof. Spell checkers have a limited dictionary, so some words that show up as misspelled
may really just not be in their memory. In addition, spell checkers will not catch misspellings
that form another valid word. For example, if you type “your” instead of “you’re,” “to” instead of
“too,” or “there” instead of “their,” the spell checker won’t catch the error.

 Grammar checkers can be even more problematic. These programs work with a limited
number of rules, so they can’t identify every error and often make mistakes. They also fail to
give thorough explanations to help you understand why a sentence should be revised. You
may want to use a grammar checker to help you identify potential run-on sentences or too-
frequent use of the passive voice, but you need to be able to evaluate the feedback it provides.

 Proofread for only one kind of error at a time. If you try to identify and revise too many things at
once, you risk losing focus, and your proofreading will be less effective. It’s easier to catch
grammar errors if you aren’t checking punctuation and spelling at the same time. In addition,
some of the techniques that work well for spotting one kind of mistake won’t catch others.

 Read slow, and read every word. Try reading out loud, which forces you to say each word and
also lets you hear how the words sound together. When you read silently or too quickly, you
may skip over errors or make unconscious corrections.

 Separate the text into individual sentences. This is another technique to help you to read every
sentence carefully. Simply press the return key after every period so that every line begins a
new sentence. Then read each sentence separately, looking for grammar, punctuation, or
spelling errors. If you’re working with a printed copy, try using an opaque object like a ruler or a
piece of paper to isolate the line you’re working on.

 Circle every punctuation mark. This forces you to look at each one. As you circle, ask yourself
if the punctuation is correct.
 Translation and Editing of Text | 7

 Read the paper backwards. This technique is helpful for checking spelling. Start with the last
word on the last page and work your way back to the beginning, reading each word separately.
Because content, punctuation, and grammar won’t make any sense, your focus will be entirely
on the spelling of each word. You can also read backwards sentence by sentence to check
grammar; this will help you avoid becoming distracted by content issues.

 Proofreading is a learning process. You’re not just looking for errors that you recognize; you’re
also learning to recognize and correct new errors. This is where handbooks and dictionaries
come in. Keep the ones you find helpful close at hand as you proofread.

 Ignorance may be bliss, but it won’t make you a better proofreader. You’ll often find things that
don’t seem quite right to you, but you may not be quite sure what’s wrong either. A word looks
like it might be misspelled, but the spell checker didn’t catch it. You think you need a comma
between two words, but you’re not sure why. Should you use “that” instead of “which”? If you’re
not sure about something, look it up.

 The proofreading process becomes more efficient as you develop and practice a systematic
strategy. You’ll learn to identify the specific areas of your own writing that need careful
attention, and knowing that you have a sound method for finding errors will help you to focus
more on developing your ideas while you are drafting the paper.

Additional materials:

Read: What is Proofreading

Proofreading marks and symbols

Main Task

Instructions: Read the following texts below and correct the errors.

Text 1. (5 errors)

Beginning next Monday, Skeeter’s Skate World has a storewide sale. All decks,
trucks, wheels, and bearings will be marked down 30 percent. Plus, you are receiving a
free roll of grip tape with every fully assembled board you purchased. All apparel and
safety gear will be half price! Come on down to Skeeter’s even if you don’t plan to be
buying anything. Live bands will perform free concerts every night and free refreshments
are served.

Text 2. (4 errors)
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The zebra is a mammal that, like the donkey and the mule, are related to the
horse. With its bristly mane, ropy tail, and large ears, it most closely resemble the
donkey. One difference between zebras and donkeys, however, is the striped pattern on
the zebra’s hide. The stripes on a zebra’s back runs vertically and help to camouflage the
animal. A herd of zebras are an exciting sight for tourists visiting the African plains.

Reinforcement Activity

Instructions:

 Write a term paper about your reflections, realizations and learning from this subject. Your
paper must be typewritten on a long bond paper following the format given by the
instructor.
 Look for a pair.
 Exchange term papers with your pair (this will be done thru Messenger chat or email).
 Copyedit and proofread your pair’s paper as they will do the same. You may opt to print
the term paper for easier editing.
 Sign your pair’s paper as proof of editing.
 Return your pair’s term paper and revise your paper according to the corrections.
 Send your output (your paper edited by the pair including all the marks, and the revised
one) to your instructor thru email or the school’s LMS.

References

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Stainton, E. M. (2002). The fine art of copyediting (2nd ed.). Columbia University Press.