Digital Proofreading

With the growing importance of e-books and digital publishing projects, which may include elements such as PDFs and webpages, the need for content to be wholly accurate and consistent remains a top priority for publishers. Even publishing projects that will ultimately be delivered in a printed format may involve production processes that necessitate digital stages, so in-house and freelance editorial staff are increasingly required to add on-screen proofreading to their armoury of skills.

This course will enable you to understand the purpose of proofreading on-screen and teach you effective and efficient on-screen proofreading techniques that require no previous knowledge of traditional paper-based proofreading methods.

Programme

• Introduction
  • Digital and web-based product and project elements
  • Hard and soft proofs: pros and cons of paper vs on-screen
  • Differences between editing and proofreading
  • On-screen proofreading: proofreading with extras
• Improving accuracy and consistency
  • Proofreading 'blind' versus against copy
  • Transferring (some) traditional working methods on-screen
  • Towards more accurate on-screen reading
  • Importance of style sheets
  • Checklists for proofreading
• Working methods
  • Spellchecking and electronic mark up in MS Office
  • Marking up PDFs on-screen
  • Proofreading e-books
  • Methods for proofreading websites
  • Checking metatags and XML coding
  • Handling non-text elements: interactive, still images, animation, simulation, video, audio, etc
  • Working within content management systems
  • Pros and cons of proprietary proofreading software
• Common problems
  • Easily missed mistakes
  • Special characters: common mistakes and display problems
  • Style issues: spacing, alignment and position; dashes and hyphens; capitalisation; numbers
  • Some words about grammar and punctuation
  • Dealing with technical language
• The human element
  • Handling author queries
  • Collating changes: what to do when amendments conflict
  • Preparing a brief for an on-screen proofreader
• Resources
  • Glossary
  • Reference works and further reading
  • Internet resources.

Who will benefit from this course?

Anyone responsible for the editorial consistency and accuracy of web-based projects, e-books or with digital elements such as PDFs, CDs, DVDs and PowerPoint presentations.

Your tutor

Anne Waddingham trades as WordMedic ('Making words better') and has worked in STM publishing for over 30 years. She specialises in tutoring, on-screen editing and project management. She authored the on-screen editing chapter in the fourth edition ofButcher's Copy-editing (CUP, 2006) and contributed toNew Hart's Rules (OUP, 2005). She has a Licentiateship in Editorial Skills from the City & Guilds Institute.

Note that most of our short courses can also be run as in-company events.