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The Irony Of It All
Brad Hollerbach

I Are My Own Proof Reader.

Posted Wednesday, January 14, 2009, at 2:14 PM

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  • It isn't easy to edit oneself! The best editing comes from an additional reader--that victim you enlist to be the second set of eyes that reviews the writing. At the university press, we have several different readers proof a work before printing--some of us look at it multiple times.

    Even then, there is that ONE tiny error that is cosmically required to appear. Despite an editor's best efforts, the One will be there, somewhere, lurking.

    By the way, I realize that the misspelling in your blog's last paragraph ("four") was intended, but how about your line "Or emphasis would also do. If I want to emphasis a particular sentence. . .." The second "emphasis" should be the verb "emphasize."

    Editors aren't at all obsessive. Not at all (sentence fragment intended).

    -- Posted by University Press on Thu, Jan 15, 2009, at 10:00 AM
  • Whoops!

    I may have caught the "emphasis" mistake if I had run this blog when I originally was planning. I swapped my Thursday and Friday blogs at the last minute to allow my wife to read one which involves moving her campus office for the fourth time. It now runs tomorrow.

    A second set of eyes always helps, but I don't like to bother anyone. Typos happen. I can live with them in blog form.

    Thanks for reading.

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Thu, Jan 15, 2009, at 12:10 PM
  • Back in the dark ages, shortly after movable type was invented, I worked at The Missourian as a summer intern. The job lasted three years because they forgot to fire me at the end of the three months (mainly because I worked for peanuts).

    The copy editor, Bill (Meston, I think was his last name), had a thing about not talking to reporters.

    You'd turn in your story, wait anxiously as Bill scrawled all over it with his soft lead pencil and watch while he sidled over to your desk holding it gingerly between two fingers until he dropped it like it had been rolled in something dirty.

    Attached to your copy would be a typewritten note - usually no more than a couple of sentences long - asking a question, wanting clarification or snidely pointing out something like "Cape Girardeans do not hit each other in the rear, alas."

    The bad thing was he was always right. Not usually right, always right.

    One day, though, I thought I had him.

    I took an obit about a woman who was married on her birthday. Same month and same day.

    I knew this was the kind of thing he would pounce on.

    I watched him work his magic on my copy and swivel over to his typewriter to pound out one of his notes (which I assumed would be something like, "Are you SURE about those dates?").

    When he slid the note on my desk, I was sitting smugly ready.

    Until, that is, I read his comment, "I've heard of child brides, but this is ridiculous."

    Yep, when I typed out the birth date and the wedding date, I put in the same year for both.

    It's been 40 years and I can still remember the sly smile on his face as he walked back to his desk.

    I got to know Bill a lot better when I worked the copy desk. Turned out he was a nice guy, well read and whose outside-the-office was NOT pulling the wings off butterflies.

    Just for the record, here's what proofreaders looked like back in The Old Days:

    http://ken.steinhoff.net/southeast_missourian_1965/target4.html

    Even thought they were only supposed to flag places where the type didn't match the copy, they still saved me from factual errors more times than I'd like to admit.

    -- Posted by Ken1 on Thu, Jan 15, 2009, at 12:33 PM
  • Funny story, Ken.

    Thanks for sharing.

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Thu, Jan 15, 2009, at 12:59 PM
  • Like your writing style, Brad ...

    Most difficult class I ever took in college was a Technical Writing course ...

    Although I've always been a supporter of 'correct grammar,' I've always written personal letters, etc., more-or-less as though I were actually speaking to someone. (MS-Word certainly lets me know that I'm not employing 'good English'--How embarrassing!) You have a good knack for doing the same.

    -- Posted by gurusmom on Thu, Jan 15, 2009, at 4:15 PM