[bksvol-discuss] Re: The job of a proofreader is...

  • From: Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
  • To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:05:40 -0400

Let me point out that one of your tasks need not be done. You need not move the page numbers to the top. Just be sure to leave a blank line at the top of the page. The Bookshare automatic tools will take care of moving the page numbers to the top when the proofread book is submitted.


On 4/20/2012 10:46 AM, Sandi Ryan wrote:
Hi Ann and All,

I agree with you about the duties of a proofreader but, as a scanner, I'd like to add my two cents about scanner duties, too.

If you're scanning a book, you are the person who first offers the book to the collection. Someone, with or without a copy of the book you submit, will have to read through it and decide whether you've done a good job.

When I scan, I scan the book as quickly as possible, making sure every few pages that everything is going well. Then I sit down with the book, move page numbers to the top, strip the headers, put title, chapters, etc. in appropriate fonts, make sure ellipses and dashes conform to Bookshare format, and read the book to find and correct scannos. Even if I am holding the book for a proofreader I know is meticulous I do these things. There is still plenty for them to do, but I try to let them proofread for pleasure more than to find my pesky errors. Many errors can be found and corrected quickly throughout a book. Those that can't I find by reading every word in the book.

Do I love every book I read? No, but I've found a lot of books I really like that I wouldn't have picked up except to put them in the Bookshare collection. I've learned about lots of things, and I truly love the work I do.

Scanning each book takes me two days to two weeks, depending on the length and the pleasure factor.

Hopefully, when a proofreader gets one of my books, he or she can do a quick read-through and feel comfortable that the book is ready. But I count on the proofreader to make sure I haven't missed errors. The purpose of two people touching the book is making it as near perfect as possible.

Okay, I'm out of the closet!

Sandi

----- Original Message ----- From: "Ann Parsons" <akp@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 7:14 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] The job of a proofreader is...


Hi all,

I'm writing because I just sent off a quality report about a book I'm reading. Oh, I'm going to finish the book, it's part of a series I'm reading, but I have a really hard and knotty question to ask volunteers.

Here it is, folks. Is it the job of a proofer to actually *read* a book, or can a proofer get away with checking title and so on, and then just pushing the book through?

If you answered that you thought you could get away with just checking metadata, you'd be wrong, wrong three times over. This book I'm reading, Divided Allegiance by Elizabeth Moon, has a wonderful title page and front piece. Then, I started actually *reading* the blessed thing. Well, I wasn't reading it, my DTBM was. Anyway, this book's quality was only good. There were a million scanos including the mangling of the main character's name. Do you know how aggravating it can be when your main character, mentioned about ten times per page has her name mangled five out of those ten times? Scannos like 'ff' for 'if' and garbage chars at the end of pages.

<frowning darkly> There is no excuse for this kind of sloppiness. Why do you think it takes me weeks to proof a book? It's because I actually read every, single, word in the whole blessed book! I have allowed a book to be sent up after reading half or so of it, but only once. That was because the scanner was known to me, the book I had read so far had been aeror free, and I knew that the quality would be the same throughout! If I proof, I read. All this stuff could have been easily fixed! <grrrrr> Sorry for ranting guys, but I devoutly hope that my rant has stopped any lazy proofers in their tracks and caused them to reexamine their work.

Ann P.

--
Ann K. Parsons
Portal Tutoring
EMAIL:  akp@xxxxxxxxxxxx
web site:  http://www.portaltutoring.info
Skype: Putertutor

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost."

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