User:Bess\More Proofing Skills
INTRODUCTION
This page follows on Basic Proofing Skills.
Proofreading and formatting
In the old days, when things were much simpler, proofing and formatting happened at the same time. But we have moved on. It is more efficient to separate the two functions, and let the proofers proof, and the formatters format. That is why proofers should not put in any formatting mark-up. This usually happens when a new proofer by accident strays into the formatting guidelines, and sees all the other jobs. Doing formatting when proofing is usually wasted effort as most proofers will remove any formatting they see, to stop it interfering with accurate proofing.
Don't introduce new errors into the text
In proofing, we look after the accuracy of the text, while the formatters see to the look and layout of the pages. In general the Proofreading Guidelines advise against moving text: changing the position of captions, moving sidenotes and footnotes about; messing around with tables; retyping smallcaps (see below), and otherwise doing unnecessary jobs. These jobs are left for the formatting rounds; they have the tools to make it easier.
GETTING TO GRIPS WITH HARDER PROJECTS
There's a lot in the guidelines!
The Index to the Guidelines will help you to find those elusive answers.
More about hyphens and dashes
These will often infest even the easiest project.
The following are a few useful observations. You must confirm details with the guidelines.
We never leave a hyphen at the end of a line. We always rejoin the split word by moving the second part up to the end of the top line to join the first part, but be careful when deciding whether to drop the hyphen (con-venience becomes convenience), retain it (carriage-horse), or keep it, but mark it this way: to-*day. We do the last when we are not sure how the author normally spelled the word – the asterisk alerts the post-processor, who has the tools to check the whole book to find out. In the past many words were hyphenated that we would now write as one word. You can use this asterisk liberally.
When a word is split over two pages, we never do the rejoining. We simply mark the first part at the end of the page with an asterisk, over- becomes over-*. If the split word occurs as the first word on a page, and you are sure it is the second part of a split word, then precede it with an asterisk: ing would become *ing.
So much for hyphens. Now for the dashes; they are longer lines. An en-dash is just a little longer than a hyphen (about as long as the letter n) and is used for things like ranges of numbers – use one hyphen. An em-dash is longer yet (about as long as the letter m); we represent it with two hyphens. It is often found, but it needs to be clothed by putting it between two characters without spacing, unless it ends a paragraph or a verse. At the end of a page, we use asterisks exactly as for hyphens. A long dash is the longest (four or more ordinary letters); we use four hyphens. They can have spaces before or after or both depending on context.
Start with dash guidelines and read on for a few pages.
Ellipses
In case you are a math whiz: Ellipses (singular ellipse) are a kind of flattened circle. In language we get ellipses (singular ellipsis). When a part of a sentence is left out it is called an ellipsis. An ellipsis is often indicated in written language by a series of dots (usually three) or, in older texts, by a dash. In everyday shorthand, we often refer to the dots (or the dash) as the ellipsis, but technically, the gaps are the ellipses. Ellipses are normally followed by a space; this means that they don't need to be clothed like em-dashes.
The simple ellipses are very easy to deal with; but I am not sure that there is actually anybody in DP who is completely clear about the rules for handling complicated ellipses. Certainly the rule hasn't been rewritten to make it easier to follow -- yet. For myself, I just do the best I can and leave it to others who might have more of a grip. I am sure you know what the guidelines say. From the wiki I found some examples, which may bring some clarity. Scroll down a bit to get to the appropriate paragraph. Finally, there are at least two forums with some discussion about it. Try ellipses and the questions about ellipses. Remember that the Project Comments thread for any particular project is a good way to get info, particularly if the Project Manager has something special in mind - some projects have many ellipses!
Smallcaps
They are mentioned in small caps.
I don’t find that explanation very clear, so this is my version.
Firstly, how do you recognise small-caps?
It is a special typeface where all the letters are capital letters; only the ones intended to be upper-case are somewhat larger than the rest: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Please note that if, in the original, all the letters are upper-case and they are all the same size, this is likely to be ordinary capital letters in a smaller font. Change any lower-case ones to upper-case.
Secondly, what are you supposed to do?
Don't worry about the letters being in UPPER-CASE, lower case or Mixed Case; just check that it's the correct letter, regardless of case.
This means that ALL quiet On THE westERN Front is OK; but ALL quite On THE EastERN Front needs fixing (ALL quiet On THE WestERN Front). You don't have access to the appropriate typeface, so you can do nothing more.
Thirdly, what happens later?
The formatters will mark it up. The post-processors have the means to transform that text into the appropriate small-caps typeface; but they'd like to know that the letters have already been proofed.
Want to move on to the next round?
Remember that each project starts in P1; the projects in P2, P3, etc. are not other, difficult ones. But in the higher rounds you will be checking the pages more carefully - looking for the tricky errors. The Access Requirements page in the wiki tells you how to get permission to proof in higher rounds - scroll down about a page to get to the section Working in The Rounds. Again, all the blue items on that page are links you can click on.
How did it all start?
If you read the DP timeline entry from the DP wiki you will find many links that will suck you deeper and deeper into our past . . .
Just for fun
All work and no play . . . so why don’t you spend some time looking through the forums – you’ll find a link on the Activity Hub green bar. You’ll be surprised how edifying (and fun) they can be! These are like the coffee-shops, bars (pubs), hospital emergency waiting rooms, clubs or parks where DPers hang out, so join them! Try telling us how you found DP, what your username means and how you liked your mentor feedback. (In fact the Activity Hub green bar has a number of useful buttons – why not explore them?)
Reading more than just the odd page here and there
At the bottom of the project page you will find Event Subscriptions - where you can request notifications of special occasions in the life of the project, including when it gets posted to Project Gutenberg for free downloading!
When you are feeling discouraged
Nobody’s life depends on your work – many more eyes will see the work and will selflessly fix anything you do wrong. Keep your eye on the ultimate goal and know that you are doing your bit. Egos get in the way, so put yours in the naughty corner, like I do.
General advice
Please remember that you can always come back to me with questions - if I don't know the answer, I might be able to point you in the right direction (or as another DPer says "I can make something up"). You can also send a private message (pm) to dp-feedback, specifying your level, the project name and page numbers you need help on.
As soon as you are comfortable with the guidelines, please try some of the other available projects – there are some very interesting books to work on.
There are two very important things you can do right now.
The first is to keep practising, especially on varied, and increasingly difficult, texts. Practice makes perfect!
The other is to ask whenever you are in doubt. The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask!
Happy proofreading! We love every page you do.
FOR INTERMEDIATE PROOFERS
Why don't we leave the line breaks, hyphens and dashes alone?
It works like this: In the end this text will be made available on a selection of e-readers with variable line lengths. We have to produce something that has no line breaks except where they are essential. In effect this means that each paragraph will be one long line. This is also the reason why we have to have blank lines above paragraphs – to stop all the paragraphs running into one another. Now it is easy to understand that we have to have blank lines to keep things apart that have to be separate.
To avoid having these lines artificially broken, we have to make sure that end-of-line hyphens (where they are needed) don’t have spaces on either side. The same applies to dashes (except in special cases where a dash stands for a word where spaces can appear on either side, or where it ends a paragraph or line of verse). When we have these situations at the end of a page, it is not the proofer's job to sort them out, so don't. We simply mark them for a later time when the pages are stitched together.
A very good rule is: After removing page headers, leave one blank line at the top of each page, unless the page starts within a paragraph, when you leave none. Of course [Blank Page] always comes at the top of the page.
How does wordcheck work?
I start by assuming that you have read what I say in my tips on word check. Start by reading WordCheck FAQ; it has been so well written, I can hardly improve on it. Nonetheless, here are a few comments to clarify points that I have found confusing to some.
There is no green flag. There is a green cross on the book which is to be clicked to Suggest and Unflag - the word flag is jargon. It does not mean a real flag icon.
When a word is flagged in WordCheck it is simply an alert to you that it is a concern, as it failed the various tests it was put to. Now you have to decide.
If you recognise it as an error (in other words, it does not match the scan), then you correct the word, either directly in the little box in WordCheck or when you quit WordCheck and go back to the text; after which you should run WordCheck again.
If the word matches the scan, and you feel that the author meant it that way, then you can unflag it (by clicking on the little book icon). This way you suggest it as a Good word to give the PM (project manager) the opportunity to make the final call. He gets a list of unflagged words per page; then he can put them in his Project lists (Good or Bad) depending on his knowledge of the project and author. Ordinary proofers seldom need to even look at the GWL (good word list) or BWL (take a guess . . .), so don't worry about it. The software that runs the WordCheck refers to them.
If the word matches the scan, but you think it might be a misspelling, typo or mistake by the author, then don't unflag it; it then suggests to the PM that it might be a Bad word.
After all this, you can Quit WordCheck, if you made no changes in WordCheck, or Submit Corrections to save the corrections you made in the little box.
Now, make sure you didn't miss this bit!
About beginner projects and mentoring
The BEGINNER projects are proper projects and go through our process like any other project. They are chosen as suitable for teaching new beginners the basics, and are automatically mentored by someone from our pool of mentors; the other projects are not. BUT, I will happily answer questions, or pass them on to someone who can help. But please let me have the project name (e.g. A Little Girl in Old St. Louis) and page numbers (look like: 123.png) so that I can go directly to the problem. Links are not needed.
Catchwords
These are printers' guides: delete them.
Errors in Project Gutenberg texts
Although PG is getting some very good work out of DP lately, it wasn't always that way. I guess they started with some prominent books, too - where the mistakes would be more readily found.
These are the forums I investigated - please hunt around them if you have time: Project Gutenberg ; correcting posted book ; errors in digital book ; editing PG text.
Go to the latest page in each forum and check the dates of the posts - the information might be out of date.
It looks to me as if errata2015@pglaf.org might be a good place to start your enquiries, but I did not try it.
Happy explorations!
How do the mailboxes in the DP message system work?
When you submit a pm (private message), it appears in the inbox of the intended recipient.
It also sits in your own outbox, until it is opened by the recipient. Then it goes to your sentbox.
When you mark and save a message, it goes to one of your saveboxes.
Never delete messages from your outbox, unless you have changed your mind about sending it.
Remember that, due to time differences, your message might not be opened and read until the people in Germany, Australia or Japan have woken up.
A useful tool
Sometimes comparing words might be useful; as when you want to check whether despatch is an alternative spelling for dispatch, for instance.
It is a blunt instrument, but it can give you very valuable clues - experiment with the settings!
What next?
By the time you have come this far you are probably well into the DP world and know how to navigate the guidelines or the wiki for solutions for your problems.
If not, you are welcome to send a pm to either dp-feedback or Bess.