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To: techwr-l @ listserv.okstate.edu
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Subject: peer edits
>Surely you jest! Read the book aloud...."perfect text"???
>What planet are you from and who has this kind of time?
It does take a good bit of time, but in my experience reading aloud is a
GREAT way of catching little things that slip through a
silent reading. "That sounds awkward. . . gee, I already said that. . .
that's the third time I've used that phrase".
The absolute best method of proofreading I ever heard of was related to
reading aloud. It took two people (we used students, mainly),
one with the original copy, one with the proof copy, and consisted of
reading every sentence of the original aloud with punctuation.
"Quote that sounds awkward period space period space period space--just one
space there, by the way--gee (lower case there) comma
I--capitalized I--already said that," etcetera etcetera etcetera. We all
groaned about doing it of course, but I'll tell you one thing--that
magazine was CLEAN. It seemed to be almost a foolproof way to catch
errors, except for the occasional student who thought he or she
had a brain the size of a planet and would go into "I'm above this sort of
idiot work" mode. It wasn't proof against that kind of fool,
unfortunately. :-)
Cat
Cathy Carr
Documentation Specialist
Ovid Technologies, Inc.
1/212/563-3006 or 1/800/950-2035 (ext. 323) http://www.ovid.com
