copyediting test

[redbird]

After a bit of yak shaving, I sat down at my computer, did a copyediting test, and sent it back.

The publisher puts out books on computing, and their test is a sample chapter from one of those. From 2013, which is a long time in that field. Nonetheless, I included a query as "AU:" because if this were a real project I would have sent that to the author to clarify. (The options for queries are AU, for the author, and PE, for the production editor.)

I also walked as far as the nearest mailbox, to drop in a postcard. (It was much prettier than the ones Canada Post is giving out free to everyone in Canada, because I selected these cards for appearance rather than, oh, maximizing the letter-writing area.

That felt like enough for one day. I'd originally been planning to cook diinner, but cattitude kindly offered to make dinner instead. I had a fallback plan, which was "open package of fish, slice bread, and put bread, butter, and fish on the table," but this way we had a hot meal and a salad.

Comments

[voidampersand]

I need to read more of the books you are editing.

[cmcmck]

Yak shaving?

Do tell! :o)

[green_knight]

My CE test policy is to pretend they're real projects. I figure that if a press isn't happy with my way of working (which includes basic fact checking and some content queries), we'd better find out from the start.

[redbird]

Slang I picked up from cattitude for tasks that are necessary prep for doing what you actually need or want. In this case, it involved figuring out how to attach a template to a Microsoft Word file, and then getting Cattitude to use Linux tools to check the included macros for safety.

[redbird]

I did that, except that I was comparing BSD Unix instructions written in 2013 with 2021 information. So they got a query noting that "userland," which the author seemed to be using to mean "the users of your computer system, as distinct from you the sysadmin," is now the name of a phone app.

[green_knight]

Good catch!

I just did a 5th edition where the authors had not reviewed their links for a similar period. Good thing I did, because one of them had been hijacked by a porn site... I had not been expecting that!

[adrian_turtle]

Think how useful it would be to have your work fact-checked by a copyeditor with a time machine!