On Feb 27, 11:20 am, Guy Macon <http://www.guymacon.com/>
wrote:
> I have been reading the source code and docs for an unreleased
> operating system / programming language. The author was rather
> strongly influenced by the books Starting Forth and Thinking
> Forth (which I gave him). The problem is that at times he
> writes things like this: "Unlike Forth, which has [attribute A],
> this new language has [attribute B]" which are true about the
> Forth described in those two books, but not true of Forth in
> general. What I need in order to properly proofread/edit those
> statements is a modifier. Something like "One early Forth" or
> "Classic Forth" or some such. My question is, what wording
> should I suggest?
>
> --
> misc.business.product-dev: a Usenet newsgroup
> about the Business of Product Development.
> -- Guy Macon <http://www.guymacon.com/>
Proof-reading and editing aren't necessarily the same thing.
Editing is the first step. If you are editing, then add text, or
reword, or remove the statement entirely. Be brutal, that's what a
good editor is for. Facts, figures, references, sense and phrasing are
all the editor's domain.
Proof-readers are generally not looking for errors or omissions, just
for correctness at the syntactical level; layout, fonts, headings,
spelling, punctuation, that sort of nit. So, if you are proof-reading,
then margin note the statement as a last resort; a good proof reader
has no opinions and no knowledge of the facts.
I did some proof reading when I was at university; then (a goodly
number of years ago), the pages used to arrive on my doorstep from the
pre-press on huge galley sheets, which I marked up and sent back for
correction. I got paid on a per galley basis. Hated it; printers' ink
was horrible sticky stinky stuff, especially on fresh galleys. Boring
too, and not very lucrative, but when you're a student with bills to
pay and beer to buy...
--
Regards
Alex McDonald
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