Proofreaders: know your game
Proofreading is unique. Unique in the sense that as well as your CV and cover letter/email containing all of the specifics of your career and experience, they also embody the quality of your work. Before you’ve even been invited in for an interview, I’ve had a small taster for how good you are at submitting error-free documents.
Yet it’s frightening how many people have emailed me recently asking for work in this very area—my business specialises in document editing—only for their covering emails to be littered with errors. Admittedly, if I’d received the emails from people outside the field, people not looking for related work, I would have let the mistakes pass me by. But their context has meant that I’ve either responded with some heartfelt, cotton wool-lined guidance, or responded with a pleasantry only to confine the email to the Never hire folder. (Actually, the latter step is a given.)
Paragraphs have lacked closing periods, proofreader has been written as two words (yet as a single word within the same email), the Oxford comma has been used whimsically, appearing in some places but not in others, hyphens have appeared instead of em dashes, and quotation marks have been used in instances where one might not even expect someone to sign them in a bar with their hands.
Some (all?) of these points might sound pedantic. And they are. But then proofreading is all about pedantry, and if you can’t get your covering email right, what hope do I have that you’ll fare any better with a client’s document?
My name’s Dan and I read my own blog
It’s a bit sad, isn’t it? But I subscribe to my own blog in Google Reader. And I read most of the posts that appear there.
Before publishing a post, I’ll preview it, allowing me to assess the prose before it is exposed to its audience, however small that audience may be. This gives me the opportunity to correct any issues with flow, and any howlers I may have made along the way.
And some time after I’ve hit the Publish button, the post will pop up in Google Reader. And invariably, I’ll read it in its entirety. Occasionally, I’ll spot a mistake that slipped through the net—I find my own work the most difficult to proofread, as I’m too close to it—but more importantly, I’ll read it as an audience member, given the delay since having read it.
And I like little better than stumbling upon old posts from years back to see what I had to say. I’m happy to say that my writing has improved over the last five years, as has by my grammar. Notwithstanding, I enjoy the things I had to say back then.
I’d be interested as to whether others out there read their own work.
Beautiful date formats
I’ve struggled with date formats for some time now. Formats for dates that don’t need to be interpreted by computers that is, those that appear in documents. For the sake of example, we’ll use the sixth day of December last year.
While in America, I did as the Americans. Shorthand was 12/6 (or “twelve six” when voiced). Longhand, it was December 6, 2008. When combined with the year, it always struck me as slightly odd that the specificity was inconsistent from left to right: first came the month, which was then made more specific with the day. Yet at this stage, the reader doesn’t yet know the year. In the UK’s DD/MM/YYYY format, specificity decreases from left to right. Although arguably, what use is the day without first knowing the month?
The comma in the American longhand version was necessary to separate the two numbers. At first, I was uncomfortable with the proximity of these two numbers. But over time, I came to regard it as an attribute rather than a hindrance. And I came to adore the longhand variant.
(The shorthand version continued to confuse me throughout my two years there, and mentally I had to deconstruct the two numbers bleated out to figure out what they represented, particularly for days in the first twelve of the month. Not ideal, being a project manager.)
Now back in the UK, I’ve recently settled on a format that I’m comfortable with. In Excel, we’d say d mmmm, yyyy. In English: 6 December, 2008. Where the year is redundant, I simply opt for 6 December. Never should either be preceded with a jarring the. (My word do I hate that?) When talking of a month, I use December 2008, without the intervening comma—it’s too short to warrant one.
For the full variation, I like its simplicity. I’ve never been a big fan of the superscripts that come into play with ordinal numbers—when I do use ordinals, I always reject MS Word’s auto-formatting, leaving them in standard font—6th. And I feel that the comma is necessary to give some rhythm to the construct. As for the months, I feel that our Gregorian legacy is sufficiently poetic and inspiring for the months not to be abbreviated. Let’s save that crime for data files.
Out of orifice emails
The Outlook interface for creating and editing your out-of-office email response is dreadful. In Outlook 2007, it constitutes a text-box four lines high, maybe 350 pixels wide for entering raw, unformatted text. Keep typing and you’ll get a vertical scrollbar.
And the interface does not allow for spell-checking.
The dreadfully constrained interface and the lack of a spell-checker make for out-of-office emails littered with typos and grammatical heathenry, an email that is sent to way more people than any other. I would estimate that over half of those I receive contain at least one error.
Today’s examples:
- I am out of the office until Friday 22nd May and will limited access my emails during this time
- I am out of the office at a and will be back at work on the 26th May 2009
Please. Copy your email into Word. Read it, check it and double-check it before turning your out of office on. Thank you.
Too high for Nate
Lots of sites, both professional and otherwise, seem to be using a double-hyphen when they mean to use an em dash. It’s as if they know that they need a long dash, but can’t be arsed to insert one.
The double-hyphen looks hideous, but it’s as if I should give them credit for trying. How about trying a bit harder and typing ALT+0151 (on the number keypad, not the top row). Or if you’re in WordPress (I am, don’t you know), hit the Insert Custom Character button sporting a Ω symbol, having hit the Show/Hide Kitchen Sink button). The em dash can be found on the second row, fifth symbol from the right.
Here you’ll find more on the correct use of hyphens, en dashes and em dashes.
This and next: difference of opinion
OK. So it seems that response has finally tailed off on my this week or next week quiz. The 22nd and most recent responder submitted their response a second before 09:23 this morning.
And what an interesting set of results we have. Only two of the ten questions yielded unanimity. On any given Monday, it seems This Thursday will never result in confusion, nor will Next Monday.
The phrase most likely to cause confusion is Next Sunday when used on a Monday. 55% of responders believe it to mean the next Sunday to occur; 45% believe it to mean the one after that. And arranging a meeting This Monday on a Monday will also likely get people turning up on the wrong day. 64% think the meeting is scheduled a week from today, 36% thinking it’s happening today.
For completeness, below are the rest of the results.
- It’s Thursday 4th. Next Monday means either 8th (77%) or 15th (23%)
- It’s Thursday 4th. Next Saturday means either 6th (23%) or 13th (77%)
- It’s Monday 1st. Next Wednesday means either 3rd (18%) or 10th (82%)
- It’s Thursday 4th. Next Wednesday means either 10th (82%) or 17th (18%)
- It’s Monday 1st. Next Friday means either 5th (23%) or 12th (77%)
- It’s Sunday 7th. Next Tuesday means either 9th (32%) or 16th (68%)
Best be careful next time you use this and next in relation to dates. It’s more confusing than you might think. The quiz is still open, btw, if you’re interested in submitting your views.
This week or next?
I’ve written before about how people use the words this and next when referring to weeks. And the ensuing confusion. I’d love it if you could complete the ten questions below to figure out whether people are consistent in their views, or whether confusion reigns.
This was prompted by my friend Alan, reading from Austria a reader’s letter on the very subject in yesterday’s Telegraph.
Thanks for your time. (One submission each, please.)
Confusion to follow
Here’s a quick addendum to my previous post explaning the confusion of toggles such as Mute and Unmute. I think the BlackBerry Storm has taken a step forward with its choice of Mute and Mute Off. Altough I’m not sure why. Mute Off could equally be read as a noun as opposed to a verb. Maybe the fact that it’s made up of two words signifies more of an undoing action.
The issue surrounds the abbreviation of the English language to the point at which verbs and nouns become indistinguishable.
The same is true in Twitter. A user’s page includes text showing X following and Y followers. Only by looking at the Y followers piece can I get my head around the fact that the X refers to the number of people that the person is following, as opposed to the number following that person.
It’s a dull subject, but from a user experience perspective, Twitter needs to sort it out, either graphically or editorially.
Grammar: supply and demand
As grammar and spelling standards continue to slide and txt-speak continues to gain prevalence, will demand for skills in grammatical correctness (e.g. proofreading) increase because of the shortage of skilled resources, or decrease owing to the reduced demand?
The space line continuum
The space immediately after a link should never form part of the link itself. And the space after a portion of a sentence emphasised via a different fount should never share that of the emphasised portion.
Laziness through double-click and "intelligent" drag selecting gives an outcome that jars. With me at least.