words

Reading

Hannah McCall Leave a comment

I have a professional ‘About’ page, which you can find here, but I am also a real human being. I am going to express some of my real human self, starting with my relationship with reading.

Although I read as a job, I still retain my love of reading as a whole. In fact, I think my job has only increased my love of words – I have read some things that I never would have done otherwise, and they were fascinating, beautiful and enriching. Proofreading and reading are different techniques, and they are for different purposes, but I enjoy them both.

As a child I was always engrossed in a book (or two, or more). There are boxes and boxes of my books in the attic. I can’t bear to part with them. I am one of those people who can read in whole phrases or sentences at a time, not word by word. I was in the top percentage of every verbal reasoning test I did. Words make sense to me. They are a comfort and a wonderful challenge.

http://mrg.bz/XT9kBmHowever, there was a brief spell during my time at university where I could not bring myself to read for pleasure. I was reading to gain knowledge, to inform my essays, to prepare for exams, and it wore me down. I couldn’t find any joy in words anymore. This was especially true when I was reading about the terrible, horrible things that human beings do to other human beings.

I turned to television and to films for my stories. And while they are enjoyable mediums, they are not as deep and as engrossing as a book. I think that was part of why I embraced them. They didn’t have the same impact that written words did.

It took a while but reading has returned to being a joy for me. I try to read widely, and I am not a ‘book snob’. My current stack of books to read ranges from Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death to The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Proofing is not proofreading

Hannah 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.

http://mrg.bz/f5d0NIOnce 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’?

Hannah 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.

BearSo, 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’

Hannah 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?

‘Dessert’ or ‘desert’?

Hannah 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, orDesert 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.

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The ambiguity of ‘like’

Hannah McCall 2 Comments

CakeI 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.

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‘Precede’ or ‘proceed’?

Hannah 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.

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