Jiituomas ([info]jiituomas) wrote,
@ 2009-03-23 12:20:00
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Current music:Kospel Zeithorn - Stop making sense, m#therf#cker!

KP book, cont.
I received my own KP book paper this morning, in two forms. One with everything recommended by the language proofer - the same one who'd mangled the paper I mentioned last week - and one where the editor in charge of it (Eirik, a fellow victim of the 2005 fiasco) had already removed almost all of the bad recommendations. In all honesty, the proofer did catch several small errors that I'd missed myself, and some of the recommendations were good enough to accept. A few, however, were horrific - changes in the entire meaning of key sentences, and altered language in direct quotes. Thankfully, it seems that after the brief information break, things are looking up again.

Now, if this cursed month-long flu would just vanish, I'd be really happy...


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Proofing
(Anonymous)
2009-03-28 07:31 am UTC (link)
Every single academic text I have ever edited myself, and every single academic text I've ever given for someone else to edit or proof, has had some precise meanings "mangled". The lesson is not that proofing and editing suck, but that reviewing and rejecting edits is a standard procedure. During the last six months I've rejected changes proposed by a professional native English proofer, an Elsevier copy editor, and a researcher of Finnish language.

The outsiders just don't understand the precise terminological nuances, and they can't be expected to do so. All edits are proposals. The right to complain starts when
a) the proofer has no clue at all regarding his own work
b) author is not given the opportunity to reject changes, or rejected changes end up in the final version.

That's just my 2c.

- M

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: Proofing
[info]jiituomas
2009-03-28 08:02 pm UTC (link)
My problem her was that the proofer did not have sufficient clue regarding her own work, which was made manifest as the deadline closed in. Regardless of the fact that changes are introduced as "trackable", there's a limit to how much you can treat the author like an illiterate idiot before it becomes just condescending and unprofessional.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

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