Lecture
09
TECHNICAL COMMUNICATONS
Spring 2015
-
Althoff
Style & Editing
Part II
Editing? Or Proofing?...technically
speaking
• __________: Editing is what you begin doing as
soon as you finish your first draft. You reread
your draft to see, for example, whether the paper
is well-organized, the transitions between
paragraphs are smooth, and your evidence
really backs up your argument/conclusions/
interpretation.
Occurs :
1) content 2) overall structure
at several 3) structure within paragraphs
levels
4) clarity
5) style
6) citations
Editing? Or Proofing?...technically
speaking
• _____________: is the final stage of the editing
process, focusing on surface errors such as
misspellings and mistakes in grammar and
punctuation. You should proofread only after you
have finished all of your other editing revisions.
PROOFING “tips”
•
•
•
•
•
•
Do NOT rely entirely on spellcheckers
Grammar checkers can be problematic
Proofread for only _____________ at a time!
Read ______ and read every word
Separate the text into __________ sentences
Review the paper backwards…helps to spot
______________ a bit easier.
• Circle every punctuation mark…forces you to
examine whether each is ______________
(assuming you punctuate too much
Marking Drafts/Copy
• Editing/proofreading when using “hard” copies
can become a set of codes all of its own
• Codes: a)
b)
c)
• If done in pencil, can allow oneself (editor/proofreader) to also make changes….if done in pen
(especially contrasting color), then changes–
especially small ones can stand out.
Insert a comma
Insert something
Use a period here
Delete
Transpose
Close up (i.e., remove space)
Lower case
Example
Mostly large animals need more space
but not
Slender nosed musk
rat
Space ‘saved’:
insert “comma”
insert “the”
insert “hyphen” here
close-up, make “one” word
add “period” here
make “S” lower case
Common Expressions with
________________ words
• From a style perspective, it is the focus on
“precision” that we need to watch out for using or
over using common expressions with
superfluous words
• Generally, ______________ are better than
more words….even for portions of a sentence.
• Consider peer-reviewed manuscripts where the
space is usually limited. Good, _______ writing
results in shorter (albeit slightly) shorter
manuscripts for the most part….this has the
added benefit of getting to the point quicker.
That, in turn, benefits the _________
Common Expressions with
Superfluous words…examples
The purpose of this study was to test the
hypothesis….
On the basis of evidence available to date….
Substantial quantities….
Common Expressions with
Superfluous words…examples
In the absence of
Whether or not…
In a single period of a few hours…