EFFICIENT WORKING PRACTICES Flashcards
Find and Replace (Microsoft Word)
A function that allows you to search for words, terms or characters and replace them with something else. It is a useful tool when performing clean-up tasks before the main work begins.
Clean-up tasks
Routine changes at the start and end of a job, using Find and Replace and/or macros to remove unwanted formatting such as double spaces between words, spaces before punctuation and extra line spaces between paragraphs, or to implement house style, such as changing hyphens used as dashes to spaced en rules. As they are usually uncontentious, clean-up tasks can often be made as silent corrections.
Literal errors (or literals)
Spelling slip-ups, excess or insufficient word spacing, or other clearcut unintended errors.
Track Changes
A tool in Microsoft Word that records amendments suggested, and by whom. Track Changes can be accepted or rejected one by one or wholesale. Make sure you turn Track Changes on after you’ve performed silent corrections. See also revision marking.
Revision marking
A means of showing on screen original text and proposed changes to that text; the best known of these tools is Track Changes in Microsoft Word.
Ways to raise queries?
In comment balloons on Word document, in a numbered list of queries on a separate Word document, with query numbers in comment balloons in the file to indicate the part of text the query is referring to, or typing them directly in the text. The latter is not recommended, so only use if the author/client specifically requests.
What changes can be made silently (without Track Changes)?
Most formatting changes, particularly if they are global changes requested by the client (such as adjusting paragraph indents), global changes to spelling and style (such as changing -ize spellings to -ise spellings), and adding coding tags.
Instruction type notes
Only add instruction-type notes for the typesetter within the text if your client specifically
requires this, and make it obvious to the typesetter that it is not text to be typeset – for
example, by using highlight or a coloured font, or by typing your notes in <angle>. There is a risk that instructions typed directly into the text will not be deleted
and will appear in the published version, although some publishers have specific Word
styles to be applied to in-text instructions, which can easily be searched for and deleted
for this reason. To differentiate typesetter instructions and author queries in comment
balloons, consider highlighting the text in them in different colours.</angle>
Problems during first reading: what to do?
You will not be able to resolve all problems at your first reading. There might be a few
places where you are uncertain how to proceed. Try not to waste time agonising over
something; flag the problem in some way, such as highlighting the words, and carry on.
When you get to the end of the edit, go back and look at your flags: you will often find that
you can now make a decision – either leave it alone or alter it based on what you have
learned as you worked through the whole text.
Style sheet
A detailed record of the variable spellings, hyphenation, capitalisation, etc used in a particular document, which records in detail the editorial style applied in the text. Copyeditors should routinely compile a style sheet when working on a text and this may be passed to the proofreader so they can see what style was intended to be applied consistently.
Clean file
A copy of the edited or proof-edited file where all edits (Track Changes if using Word) have been accepted and the text appears in its final format.
Example of brief
- Please copyedit on screen, using Track Changes
- Please code the chapter heading (number, title) as CH
- Please code the section headings as A (main heading), B (subheading), C (sub-subheading), etc
- Use ‘-ise’ spellings
- Use single quote marks
- Use words for numbers up to and including ten; and numerals thereafter
- Use ‘per cent’ in the text but ‘%’ in tables and diagrams
- No hyphen in ‘cooperate’ and ‘coordinate’
- Raise queries directly with the author
