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Why would you hire a professional proofreader?

By DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

When composing a document, a writer often pays attention to the article's content rather than the accuracy of spelling, punctuation, or grammar. As a result, the original manuscript may have many mistakes. However, a published article has to be error-free, and thus, proofreading becomes a necessity.

You may think proofreading is nothing but correcting some spelling mistakes, a few grammatical errors, and adjusting punctuation here and there before printing a document. Proofreading means much more!

You will be amazed by the many aspects of proofreading. A professional proofreader will ensure that the document is free from typos and all mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation, adjust line and margin spacing, confirm uniformity in font type and size, ascertain headings and sub-headings are in order, all units and calculations are accurate, and captions of tables and illustrations tally with the text. A proofreader will also verify the accuracy of email addresses and URLs, see that the names are spelled correctly, that the writing style matches the required house style, and so on.

Now, the question is whether a busy writer has time to check and adjust all these criteria. For example, a university professor simply has no time to check every period and comma in a journal article, nor can a newspaper editor spend time checking various typing mistakes and wrong spellings in the paper before sending it for printing.

Nevertheless, the necessity of accurate proofreading on paper or a website remains the same, and its importance cannot be over-emphasized.

Thus, a writer has two options: self-proofreading or hiring a proofreader.

Proofreading yourself is possible if you have the time, determination, and knowledge of proofreading. Besides, you must have a keen eye to catch your own errors! If you like to learn the technique, the best way is to enroll in a proofreading course and learn the art of proofreading. There, you will learn that proofreading is not a happy game but a task that demands intense concentration, endurance, and time.

If you just cannot face this, then hand over the job to a trustworthy professional proofreader who will clean, polish, and make your document immaculate. The money you pay will save you time, and you will have no regrets!

WRITER'S TERMS: STYLE GUIDE

By DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

The writing style of a document depends on the writer’s objective, personality, and the target audience. The language, words, and writing voice influence the writing style of a document.

However, in public writing and especially in academic writing, it is a common practice to use a STYLE GUIDE that provides the rules you have to follow during writing, editing, or formatting a document.

A style guide will show the presentation style of a manuscript with respect to spellings, punctuation, quotations, capitalization, abbreviations, fonts, spacing, headers, and footers. It will also describe the citation style, page format, in-text citations, reference page, end-notes and footnotes, tables, and figures.

A style guide ensures uniformity in a publication. For example, when several writers contribute to a magazine, each writer will write in his or her writing style. However, it is nice if there is uniformity in all articles in the magazine. Therefore, a magazine, a journal, or a newspaper will follow a specific style guide so every writer will adhere to it.

Sometimes, magazines or newspapers may use their own style guide, the House style. Therefore, when you want to publish in a journal or a newspaper, check the style guide or house style the publisher or the editor requires.

Each university or the education institute will follow a particular style guide when writing a thesis or a dissertation. So, check with your supervisor before submitting your academic report.

Some of the commonly used style guides used by writers are given below.

Writer's terms: PUNCTUATION

By DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

Punctuation marks are a set of standard marks used in writing. They help to express the meaning clearly.

English grammar use around 20 punctuation marks are used. Some are common, while others are used in specific conditions:

period (also known as full stop, stop, full point) (.), exclamation point (!), question mark (?)
comma (,), colon (:), semi-colon (;), apostrophe (’),
quotation marks or inverted comma (single' ', double “ ")
hyphen (-), en dash (_), em dash (__)
brackets ([ ]), parenthesis (( )), angle brackets (< >), braces ({ })
ampersand (&), swing dash (~), stroke (/), eclipse ( … )

Punctuation marks differ in their purpose and their location in a sentence.

Period, exclamation marks, and question marks are placed at the end of a sentence while the colon, semicolon, hyphen, and dashes are found in the middle. Apostrophes and quotation marks help to signify a specific section and denote words spoken by someone, respectively, while parenthesis, brackets and braces may include additional information.

Specifically, punctuation marks bring life to a written piece of work. They are so powerful, without which our writings will be so boring and colourless.

See the following dialogue in Friends at Thrush Green by Miss Read (1990). Please note that all punctuation marks except periods are removed in the first dialogue.

As soon as Bertha had gone Nelly counted the packets. There were nine left.
Have not sold any yet she asked the girl.
Give us a chance replied Rosa grumpily. You only brought them ten minutes ago.
Just check them commanded Nelly.
Rosa obeyed.
Nine she said stopped and stared at Nelly.
Surely she never she began awestruck.
Never you mind said Nelly. It is me and Mrs Peters problem. You just hold your tongue.

So lifeless … isn't it? Do you feel like continuing to reading? I don’t.
Now, look at the following, adorned with proper punctuation as found in the novel.

As soon as Bertha had gone, Nelly counted the packets; there were nine left.
‘Haven’t sold any yet?’ she asked the girl.
‘Give us a chance,’ replied Rosa grumpily. ‘You only brought them ten minutes ago.’
‘Just check them,’ commanded Nelly.
Rosa obeyed.
‘Nine,’ she said, stopped, and stared at Nelly.
‘Surely, she never …,’ she began awe-struck.
‘Never you mind,’ said Nelly. ‘It’s me and Mrs Peter’s problem. You just hold your tongue.’

The only difference between these two dialogues is the absence and presence of punctuation marks. The first does not use punctuation marks, while the second uses eight types of punctuation marks.
And see the difference it has made!

In the second dialogue, all spoken words are separated with quotation marks; queries end with question marks; the surprise is emphasized with an eclipse and so on.

Punctuation marks help to set the ‘stage’. You can feel the atmosphere in a particular situation. Punctuation marks bring out the characters, their feelings, how they react … and it is easy to read and understand what the writer intends to say.

Identify the different types of punctuation marks and use them correctly to improve your writing. Pay particular attention to punctuation marks before publishing your work. See whether the correct marks are correctly placed in your manuscript.

Or, get a freelance proofreader to do it for you!
Link: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/punctuation

“I was working on the proof of one of my poems all morning and took out a comma. In the evening, I put it back again.”
Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

Writer's terms: HETEROGRAPHS

By DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

What's wrong with a spell checker?
Nothing, as long as you know your spelling!
When we start writing in English, sometimes we come across words that are pronounced the same but have different spellings. They give a different meaning, too. These words are called heterographs.

For example, look at these words: ‘weather’ and ‘whether’.

Weather describes the 'climate' while Whether is ‘expressing a doubt’. They are entirely different words, though their pronunciation is the same. Yet, how many people make the mistake of confusing these two words in their writing?

Now, look at these words. Do you know how to apply them correctly in your writing?

Dessert / Desert
Dessert: pudding, sweet course
Desert: arid region, abandon

Stationery / Stationary
Stationery: writing material
Stationary: immobile, standing in one place

Advise / Advice
Advise: instruct, guide
Advice: instructions, guidance

Compliment / Complement
Compliment: praise, approve
Complement: match, supplement

Elicit / Illicit
Elicit: stimulate, produce
Illicit: illegal, forbidden

Site / Cite
Site: place, location
Cite: quote, reference

And many more: too/two, male/mail, hear/here, genes/jeans, there/their, no/know, rice/rise, right/write, plain/plane, form/foam, course/coarse …

As you can see, the difference of a letter or two gives an entirely different meaning to a word.

A spell checker is a great asset to a writer. It helps to identify misspelt words in a document easily and quickly. But a writer should NOT fully depend on a spell checker as the spell checker is programmed to identify the misspelt words, and the above words are not misspelt!

So when you write, ‘all guests complemented Amanda for her pineapple desert’, the spell checker keeps silent! But check each word with a dictionary and see how wrong and meaningless the entire sentence is!

It should be ‘all guests complimented Amanda for her pineapple dessert’.

When you write in English, pay particular attention to your document's spelling. Don’t be lazy; use a dictionary to check the tricky words to make your writing perfect.

Or, get a freelance proofreader to do it for you!
Links: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/punctuation

“What a comfort a Dictionary is …!” Lewis Carroll (1832 – 1898)

Writer's terms: APOSTROPHE (')

By DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

An apostrophe is a powerful punctuation mark that can change the meaning of a sentence, just by changing its position in a word.

An apostrophe gives two meanings: (1) possession (2) contraction.

Possession: To give the meaning of ‘belong to’.

For example, look at these two words: Girl’s, Girls’

Girl's:
Here, the apostrophe is placed before ‘s’. This signifies the possession of one girl. Eg. Girl’s hair band (the hair band belong to one girl).

Similarly, cat’s plate means ‘plate of a cat’ and doll’s house means ‘house of a doll’.

Girls':
Here, the apostrophe is placed after ‘s’. This denotes the possession of many girls. Eg. Girls’ hostel (the hostel where many girls live).

In the same way, cats’ plate means the plate belonging to several cats and dolls’ house means the house belongs to several dolls.

However, in plural nouns (e.g. people, children), the apostrophe is placed before ‘s’ as the noun already gives the many meaning.

So, it is a children’s playground; NOT childrens’ playground.

Contraction: A word can be shortened by omitting some letters and placing the apostrophe at the site of the missing letters.

Eg. it’s (it is, or it has), don’t (do not), what’s (what is, or what has), it’ll (it will), you’ll (you will), doesn't (does not), you've (you have), I've (I have)

What happens if there is no apostrophe?

When an apostrophe is not used before or after ‘s’, then the word becomes a plural. E.g. Girls are playing (meaning many girls). This does not give the meaning of ‘belong to’.

Thus, girl’s, girls’, and girls are three words with three different meanings.

The following writing was displayed outside a school building:

Old Girl’s (2008)

The writer wanted to say that this building was constructed using the funds donated by the Old Girls’ Association (2008).
However, the meaning of the writing was that a single old girl from the school donated the building!
This was on the wall for some time until somebody detected the mistake and corrected it:

Old Girls’ (2008)

Apostrophes can be very tricky. Insert the apostrophe in the correct position to convey the exact message to your audience, which will greatly improve your writing.

Writer's terms: JARGON

By DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

You must learn to talk clearly. The jargon of scientific terminology which rolls off your tongue is mental garbage.
Martin H. Fischer (1879 – 1962)

Jargon is the particular language concerning the vocabulary and grammar used by people who belong to a specific group.

A doctor may speak Medical jargon, which will confuse a layman but will be perfectly understood by another doctor.

Similarly, businessmen speak business jargon, military men speak military jargon, policemen speak police jargon, and lawyers speak legal jargon.

The jargon of a specific group can be meaningless or give an entirely different meaning to others. For instance, a ‘widow’ in the Social service department is not the ‘widow’ in a publishing house. Likewise, a ‘gutter’ for road construction services is not the ‘gutter’ in the printing department.

Hence, good knowledge of jargon is essential if you intend to use it in your writing.

Can we use jargon in academic writing?

An academic writer should focus clearly on the subject with the precise use of words and follow a formal writing style. Slang, idioms, and jargon have no place in academic writing.

If you are writing a college essay, a research paper for a scientific journal, or a presentation for a conference, do not include jargon unless it is well-understood by all audience members. Thoroughly consider your audience before using any term as jargon.

As a rule of thumb, avoid jargon during academic writing unless it is ‘Academic jargon’ and is necessary for your script.

Some examples of Academic jargon:
analysis / assessment / concept / context / definition / data / research / formula / factors / function / hypothesis / interpretation / method / percent / principle / procedure / sector / source / structure / theory / variable …

Link: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/alzsh3/acvocab/

Writer's terms: RUNNING HEAD

By DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

A ‘running head’ or ‘header’ is generally a line of copy placed at the top of every page of a book. Or, it may be on every other page of a document.

Running heads are a great way to divide sections of a book. It will help to identify the pages of a manuscript and keep it together, especially during the review process where the author’s name is not revealed.

To fix a running head to your MS Word document, press ‘insert’ in the toolbar and then ‘header’. What you type here will automatically appear on all pages.

You can also have a different running head on the first page from the rest of the document.
See: http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/running-head.aspx

Typically, a running head shows the book title on the left side page of a book (verso) and the chapter title on the right (recto). In academic writing, the running head may have a page number and author’s last name, or it can be an abbreviated version of the main title.

I prefer to use upper and lower case letters and italics for a running head. However, it may differ according to the writing style.

For example, in APA writing style, a running head can have around 50 characters, including spaces, and should only be in upper case letters.

Links:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
http://www.uhv.edu/ac/style/pdf/format.headers.pdf

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826).

Writer's terms: ABBREVIATIONS

By DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

An abbreviation is a shortened version of a written word or a phrase used instead of the original word.

Abbreviations are formed using either a letter or a group of letters from the word or phrase. For example, UN is the abbreviated term for United Nations, while BOC is for Bank of Ceylon.

You may use upper- or lower-case letters to form an abbreviation. Usually, it depends on the original word. Sometimes, a full-stop is placed after an abbreviated word; U. S. A. for the United States of America. However, it may depend on the House Style of the document.

Guardian Style Guide does NOT use full-stop or spaces between the abbreviated letters; BBC but not B B C nor B.B.C.; 4am but not 4 a m nor 4 a.m. In the same way, Mr, Mrs, and Ms are used instead of Mr., Mrs., and Ms.

According to Hart’s rule, in the British style, an abbreviation should have a full-stop, but a contraction should not. Accordingly, Reverend Silva is abbreviated as Rev. Silva, and Doctor Thomas is contracted as Dr Thomas in UK English.

In American style, abbreviations, as well as contractions, do have a full-stop. Therefore, Reverend Silva is abbreviated as Rev. Silva and Doctor Thomas is contracted as Dr. Thomas in US English.

Certain grammatical contractions make a written report easy to read; ‘is not’ written as isn’t, ‘cannot’ as can’t and ‘you will’ as you’ll. But the report may not look professional!

In academic writing, any abbreviated word or phrase should be spelt in the first occurrence. Subsequent usage of the word or phrase can be abbreviated.

Sometimes, abbreviations complicate things since the same abbreviation may describe different things. ABA can be the American Booksellers Association, but it can also be Abscisic acid, which is a plant hormone! TIFF is the Tagged Image File Format for a publisher while it is the Toronto International Film Festival for a movie fan!

Therefore, you have to be really careful when using abbreviations in your writing. It is a good practice to avoid unfamiliar abbreviations whenever possible.

Abbreviations are formed in different ways.
Acronyms take the first letter from each word and make a new word (e.g. NASA, AIDS, scuba). In Alphabetism, each letter is pronounced separately (e.g. USA, UN). Truncation uses only the first part of a word (e.g. Cell for cellular phone and Cal for calculator), and Clipped uses the middle or the end of the word (varsity for a university, flu for influenza).

Some popular abbreviations in the publishing community are,

ISBN: International Standard Book Number
JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group
PDF: Portable Document Format and FTP: File Transfer Protocol.

Links:

“I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book." Roald Dahl (1916 - 1990)

Writer's terms : PLAGIARISM

By DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

"To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own: use (another's production) without crediting the source." (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

In short, plagiarism in writing is copying what somebody else wrote and presenting it as your own without crediting or acknowledging the real author.

Sometimes people confuse 'plagiarism' and 'referencing'. During referencing, you read and understand what earlier workers wrote and use that information to enrich your writing with due credit to the author. But plagiarism is copying others' work without mentioning their names.

Once, an undergraduate gave me her assignment for marking. While reading her work, halfway through, I noticed a different writing pattern and some elaborative words that were alien to her usual writing style.

The next day, without any preamble, I asked her the meaning of one such word. The look she gave me was enough to realise that she was clueless.

Obviously, my student had directly copied a passage from a textbook, even without understanding the proper meaning, let alone its applicability to her work!

Whether you are a student, a teacher, a scientist, or a professor, using someone's work as your own is wrong and should be avoided at all costs.

Now, there are many software programs to detect plagiarized work. Hence, you must be very careful in writing and presenting your work for publication. If you are accused of plagiarism, undoubtedly, you'll lose your credibility in writing as well as in the scientific community.

Plagiarism is illegal; never be a victim of plagiarism.

Links:

What do you think?

"If you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research."
Wilson Mizner (1876 - 1933)

"The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from."
Gene Fowler (1890 - 1960)

Writer's terms

By DARSHANIE PREMATILAKE

Words! There are so many .......!

If you are a writer or intend to be a writer or attempting to write something because you HAVE to write (a report, a thesis …), then there are words and terms related to writing that you should be familiar with.

Type ‘writing terms’ in Google search, and well … you get so many words and terms related to writing.

When I searched for myself, I found many words as you did. There were simple and familiar words such as ‘spellings’ and ‘grammar’ (actually not so simple when you try to learn them), as well as uncommon words like ‘onomatopoeia’ and ‘oxymoron’.

You may also find certain terms which make you thoroughly confused.

Now, who would have thought that in the writing world, ‘widows and orphans’ are the names given to lines in a page and ‘gutter’ is the blank space between the facing pages of a book or the space between columns of printed text?

Or, do you know the meaning of ‘flat fee’ and ‘kill fee’ in the publishing business or the difference between a ‘thesis’ and a ‘dissertation’ in academic writing?

All these words and terms have a different meaning. Therefore, correct knowledge and understanding words and terms associated with WRITING is vital if you want to be a successful writer.

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.”
Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941)