Welcome to the October 2014 edition of FineTuned. If you write professionally or for pleasure, you're in the right place. This month learn the meaning of proofreading in the publishing industry.

What is proofreading?
 
When you were in school, and you asked someone to proofread your assignments, what did you really want the person to do? Was it to correct grammar, spelling and punctuation so your teacher would give you a good mark? Quite likely. Was it to rewrite your piece or reorganize your thoughts? I hope not! It’s wrong to get anyone else to do the assignment for you, and your teacher wanted to see your work.

If you were brave enough to show someone your paper, and get a few things fixed, you were also working toward your best mark and, at the same time, learning to be a good writer.

As a copy editor, I help people to correct grammar spelling and punctuation, but there’s so much more that I do. A writer getting ready to be published wants to look good, but for some it’s still hard to let another mark up the writing and to take suggestions on what needs to be changed. [Remember those red markings on your school assignments?]

Most often, when a writer comes to me asking for a proofread, it’s usually an edit that is needed, rather than just a keen eye for spelling and grammar errors. It’s a confusion of terms.

Proofreading in the publishing industry is different than the proofreading you ask for before handing in a paper. Formally, proofreading is looking for last errors before the book or publication goes to print. Quite different than you asked for in a school project.

Editing, on the other hand, is a deeper process, looking at the reasoning, the flow and development of an idea or story. It involves the use of language and making sure the writing is clear, consistent, concise and correct as well as the usual spelling, grammar and punctuation.

On the final draft, a proofreader will go through and look for particular things. These items include: making sure the page numbers and headers are correct, that words are not broken over a column or over the page, that representation of numbers is consistent throughout the document, and that the dictionary set at the beginning of the copy edit is still being adhered to. A proofreader will also check to make sure there are no remaining errors in spelling, grammar or punctuation, and that no paragraphs have been dropped at the end of sections, such as happened to a fellow writer.

This does not cover the scope of all proofreading tasks, but enough to let you know that proofreading is a different process than the one in which you asked your mother or older sister to look through your assignment before you hand it over to your teacher. If you’re indeed going to write a book, make sure you go through your document multiple times before sending it to print. It could prevent some massive headaches after the fact.
 

If you’re a writer, you also need to be a reader.

By reading, you learn about language, vocabulary and writing style—whether it’s historical fiction, mystery, poetry, or any area of nonfiction.
Books I’ve read that you might enjoy:
Kit’s Law, Donna Morrissey
The Quilted Heart, Mona Hodgson
The Journal Writer, Nina Munteanu
Promises of Home: Stories of Canada’s British Home Children, Rose McCormick Brandon
The In-Between, Jeff Goins
 
I always have books on my pile that are waiting to be read. What book are you currently reading? Is it contributing to your knowledge in some area, or is it mainly for enjoyment. Either one is fine. What do you notice about the writer’s style?

If you have a title to recommend to other readers, send me an email at cari.edit@rogers.com and, space permitting, I may share a few of them in the next newsletter.
 
 
--Carolyn Wilker is an editor, writer and storyteller


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