Proofing is not proofreading

June 16, 2015March 16, 2016Hannah McCall Leave a comment

I have noticed a tendency for the term ‘proofing’ to be used interchangeably with ‘proofreading’. I thought this might be a good opportunity to explain a little more about proofreading. In publishing terminology, ‘proofing’ means providing a proof. It is not another term for proofreading.

Once a typescript has been copy-edited and design instructions have been established, the marked-up typescript (copy) is sent to the typesetter. The typesetter then produces the proof. The proof is a way to ‘try out’ the typesetter’s work. It allows the material to be checked and corrected before the publication process moves any further.

A proofreader will read and correct this proof – proofreading.

The proofreader will typically check for any errors that have been introduced during typesetting (as well as those that may have made it through the copy-editing stage), ensure that the material has been presented as intended and without any poor outcomes (bad word breaks, widows and orphans, etc.), and make sure that any page references are correct. The proofreader’s job is to ensure consistency and accuracy, but the actual tasks undertaken may vary depending on the client’s requirements.

If you would like further information on what a proofreader does and does not do, the Society for Editors and Proofreaders has a handy page here.

‘Bare’ or ‘bear’?

June 10, 2015March 16, 2016Hannah McCall 1 Comment

I am here to save you from the potential embarrassment of asking someone to ‘please bare with’ you. You don’t want that. Probably.

So, in this context:

To bare is to uncover or reveal.
To bear is to accept, tolerate or endure.

Both words have alternative meanings. Bare may mean ‘basic and simple’ or ‘plain’, or it can mean ‘the least possible amount’. The word bear (past tense bore) has so many other uses (mostly related to the concept of carrying) that I have listed them below:

To carry or convey – ‘he was bearing a cup of tea’; ‘the boat bore the traveller downriver’
To carry or conduct oneself in a certain manner – ‘he bore himself with pride’
To display as a mark or feature – ‘it bears my signature’
(Similarly to the above) To have or continue to have something – ‘She bears a resemblance to my grandmother’; ‘I bear him nothing but goodwill’
To be called by (a name) – ‘I bear the name of my ancestors’
To support or carry the weight of – ‘the bridge could not bear the lorry’
To take responsibility for – ‘I bear no responsibility for your actions’
To be able to accept or stand up to – ‘your idea does not bear scrutiny’
To say something is true or happened in your experience – ‘I will bear witness to that’
To give birth to (a child) – ‘she bore two daughters’
To produce (of a tree, plant) – ‘my orange tree bears fruit’
To turn and proceed in a specified direction – ‘bear right at the end of the road’

I won’t patronise you by explaining bear as a noun.*

*… Apart from the usage in finance as it is a new one to me. A bear is a person who sells shares when they expect prices to fall and then buys them back (or hopes to buy them back) at the lower price.

Make of that what you will.

Using ‘refute’ and ‘rebut’

June 9, 2015March 16, 2016Hannah McCall Leave a comment

If you are writing an academic or formal piece, it is important to understand what ‘refute’ and ‘rebut’ actually mean.

They are often confused with or used instead of ‘deny’, ‘reject’ and ‘repudiate’*. These words mean to dispute something without providing an argument or proof.

‘Refute’ and ‘rebut’ mean to disprove by argument or evidence but in slightly different ways:

To refute is to prove something to be false or to disprove by argument.
To rebut is to try to prove that something is false or to present an argument against it.

These distinctions may not matter too much in everyday discourse, but it does matter when you want your audience to take you seriously.

*This is a decidedly ugly word, right?

‘Discreet’ or ‘discrete’?

June 8, 2015March 16, 2016Hannah McCall 1 Comment

These two words may be pronounced the same but they have different meanings.

Discreet means ‘tactful, careful, prudent and trustworthy’ (in regards to people) and ‘unlikely to attract attention’ (in regards to actions).

Discrete means ‘separate’ or ‘individually distinct’.

‘Dessert’ or ‘desert’?

May 15, 2015August 27, 2016Hannah McCall 6 Comments

I originally titled this post ‘Just ‘desserts” but I decided it would seem like I was trying to be clever.

Anyway, I expect that the misuse of either of these words is down to not knowing how many s’s to spell it with. The meanings are as follows:

Dessert: The sweet course of a meal, or a pudding.

Desert: Wastelands or a barren area of land; to abandon somebody or something (including military duties without leave); or to get what you deserve/be treated as you deserve (e.g. ‘just deserts’).

If it is a sweet food then use two s’s. If it is any of the other options, just use the one s.

Sources:

Oxford Dictionaries Online
The Penguin Writer’s Manual, Martin Manser & Stephen Curtis

The ambiguity of ‘like’

May 14, 2015August 27, 2016Hannah McCall 2 Comments

I prefer to eat food like cake.

Does this mean ‘food, for example, cake’ or ‘food that is similar to cake’?

The ambiguity can be solved by using ‘like’ to introduce a comparison and ‘such as’ to introduce an example. This usage of ‘like’ is perfectly acceptable in many contexts as long as the difference in meaning is recognised.

However, it should be avoided in formal writing; there are more appropriate, and clearer, alternatives.

Source:

The Penguin Writer’s Manual, Martin Manser & Stephen Curtis

‘Precede’ or ‘proceed’?

May 12, 2015August 27, 2016Hannah McCall Leave a comment

It is easy to get these two confused if you aren’t really concentrating or if you are distracted (perhaps by watching Daredevil, eating cake, or eating cake while watching Daredevil*).

However, the difference is fairly simple to understand:

To precede is to ‘go before’ (such as in time or order)
To proceed is to ‘go forward’ (or to ‘go ahead’)

If it helps, only proceed can be followed by to and another verb: He proceeded to eat my cake.

*I would never be distracted by this. I am a professional.

Source:

Oxford Dictionaries Online

Should I use ‘a’ or ‘an’?

May 11, 2015August 27, 2016Hannah McCall Leave a comment

Most English speakers will use the correct indefinite article (or determiner, if you prefer) without even thinking about it.

If you find yourself worrying, this is how to know which is correct:

A precedes words that begin with consonant sounds (letters that are not a, e, i, o or u).

An precedes words that begin with the vowel sounds a, e, i and o.

The letter u is different depending on the sound. If the beginning of the word sounds like ‘you’ (or ‘yoo’), use a. If the word begins with ‘uh’, use an.

The letter h may also vary depending on sound. If the word starts with a hard h sound, use a. If the word starts with a silent letter h, use an.

It is the sound that determines which indefinite article you should choose: a eucalyptus tree; a one-off; an understandable choice; an honourable man. Let the sound guide you when applying to single letters or groups of letters: an FAQ; an SAS unit; an MA; a B road; a TUC member; a UFO.

Sources:

Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage, ed. Jeremy Butterfield
The Penguin Writer’s Manual, Martin Manser & Stephen Curtis

A few tips for CVs/résumés

May 9, 2015March 16, 2016Hannah McCall Leave a comment

There are some common themes in the feedback that I provide to clients when proofreading CVs. This isn’t a comprehensive guide but it might give you a few things to consider:

In the UK, age discrimination laws mean that you do not have to include your date of birth (I have worked with recruiters who would actively conceal dates on CVs in order to comply with anti-discrimination rules within their organisations). You also don’t need to include your marital status, physical attributes (unless you’re applying for a job where this is relevant) or a photo (again, unless this is relevant).
Check your spelling and grammar. Also check for typos – are you reading what you have written or what you think you have written?
Try not to use more than 2 pages. I used to hear stories of CVs being binned immediately if they were longer than this. However, if you are applying for a role that demands more detail (such as a medical position), a 3-page CV is acceptable. Think carefully about how appropriate the content is for the job that you are applying for. Condense information where you can.
Choose a style and stick to it. Don’t write a list of responsibilities in a paragraph for one job and then use a bullet point list for another. Don’t start writing in the first person and then suddenly change to third.* Keep your titles and headings consistent.
If you have recently updated your CV with a new role, make sure that the previous one is now written in the correct tense i.e. past.
Avoid unnecessary or inconsistent capitalisation.
Make sure that you have given the full term when you first use an acronym or abbreviation (unless you are confident that it is well known or that the industry that you are applying to will understand it).
Make sure that you have used apostrophes correctly.

The most important advice I can give is to take your time and to read what you have written carefully. If you can, get someone else to have a look at your CV and give you some feedback on it.

*Don’t do this at all. Seriously. Writing about yourself in the third person is weird.

CV spelling mistakes

March 31, 2015August 27, 2016Hannah McCall Leave a comment

I was sat, bleary-eyed, reading the i (a British newspaper) this morning. In it, there was a list of the top ten CV spelling mistakes. The original source for the feature can be found here. Almost one-third of CVs contain at least one spelling error.

The number one most frequently misspelt word is responsibility, followed by liaise and university. The list doesn’t give examples of the incorrect spellings that were found in order to form the top ten.

There are some other examples of misspellings on the website, and I have had a look at what Microsoft Word makes of them. They are all subject to a red squiggly line or to automatic correction (apart from travelling – the spellchecker, my dictionary and I disagree with Adzuna: the legitimate British spelling is with two ls). My advice, therefore, is to make sure you take note of what your spellchecker is trying to tell you.

However, I wouldn’t rely on your spellchecker completely. It can tell you if the word is spelled incorrectly, but it can’t tell you if it is the appropriate word. It isn’t going to pick up on the correct usage of their or there, your or you’re, and its or it’s. It might not recognise the correct spelling of an unusual word. And I’m not even going to mention the poor grammatical suggestions spellchecker makes…

Make sure you are thorough when you read what you have written. Read for sense as well as for the errors. If the work is of importance, get someone else to look at it for you. When it is your own writing, it is hard to read what is there instead of what you expect to be there.

Your CV is of great importance. It is a potential employer’s first introduction to you. Take that extra time and make the extra effort. It’ll be worth it.