Thoroughness Challenge

Thoroughly Thursday is a weekly post consisting of a couple of paragraphs that contain spelling and/or grammatical errors, and your job is to find them. Please do not list the errors you find within the post. The same post is repeated at the end of Fun Friday's Spelling Challenge, with the errors corrected and highlighted in red.

Note: Names and places will NOT be misspelled, nor will there by any changes to punctuation or capitalization. In addition, if there is a word that may have more than one accepted form or there is more than one accepted spelling, those also will not be changed. That would not be fair...the purpose of the Challenge is thoroughness, not technicalities.



This week your Challenge takes a look at the history of the blogs and blogging, and contains 9 errors.
Good Luck!



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Blogging has become a hole separate world from the internet. Blogging actually surfaced back in 1983, when it was referred to as "Usenet." It was considered a primary medium for moderated newsgroups which provided an area for posting discussions on virtually any topic, but was moderated by individuals or small groups. It wasn't until 1994, just a few years after the world wide web was created, that blogs evolved into what is more commonly referred to as an online diary.

Blogging, while starting out slow, has rapidly gained popularity as a tool for many individuals, organizations and corporations, as a medium to stay in touch with and provide a means of creating an infomation system. On the individual platform, it is a way for average citizens to have a venue to communicate, reach out and provide feedback on practicaly any subject humanly concievable.

The term blog was derived form what most knew as web-logs. The term weblog meaning a regularly updated collection of links to other sites and comments, was originally coined by Jorn Barger in 1997, though what is commonly understood as blogging began as early as 1996. In May of 1999, Peter Merholz coined the term blog in a posting on his personal blog sight, by mischieviously braking down the word weblog to we blog. The we was eventually dropped, resulting in the term we are all familar with: blog.

In broad terms, a blog is commonly thought of as an online journal, though they can range from intimate personal diaries to more journalistic newsletters. Some blogs focus on a narrow selection of topics of interest to the author, while other blogs cover a much wider range of topics.

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Be sure to check back tomorrow to see how thorough you are!

Wednesday's Weird Word

This a weekly feature where you have the opportunity to grow your vocabulary with a not-very-common and/or not-frequently-used word.


Today's Wednesday's Word is: GALIMATIAS, and its pronounciation is: gal-uh-mey-shee-uhs.

GALIMATIAS is a noun, meaning nonsense, or gibberish; confused, meaningless jargon; confused or unintelligible talk.

After several drinks, it was difficult to have an intelligent conversation with him, as most of what he was saying was galimatias.


Use galimatias in a conversation today! This one you could really have some fun with!


See you back next Wednesday for another new, weird word!




In appreciation to all who have served or are serving our country - THANK YOU and Happy Veterans' Day!

Remember to thank our Veterans today!

Levels of Editing

Yesterday you were given a general look at proofreading and copyediting. Today I'll offer more detail regarding the differences between the two, and also provide you with a synopsis of the various levels of editing.


There is clearly an overlap in the type of work expected of proofreaders and copyeditors.

Proofreaders don't see things the way other people do. They scrutinize. When something is awry, their warning buzzer goes off, and they pore over every last letter and shred of punctuation to hammer the copy into error-free perfection.

Copyeditors step deeper into the intricacies of voice, language and plot, and they maintain grammatical and tonal consistency. A copyeditor will analyze, process and transform copy into intelligible, easy-to-understand prose.

An interesting fact about the word copy is that as an English word, it's related to "copious." Both are from the same Latin root that means plenty or abundance. Copy is the message that comes across.


LEVELS OF EDITING

Standard proofreading involves making sure writing is free of mechanical errors - in spelling, punctuation, consistency, and some elements of formatting - and is grammatically correct.

Editorial proofreading encompasses all the tasks involved in standard proofreading, plus a few minor tweaks to ensure clarity and correct word choice.

Copyediting involves all proofreading tasks and also improves phrasing and organization to make the writing more effective.

Substantive editing calls for a greater level of rewriting and reorganization and even the suggestion of new approaches and ideas.


With standard proofreading the goal is to ensure clarity through correctness and consistency, and by watching to be sure the discussion generally makes sense. If it doesn't, a query of the client is needed. At this level pointing out a which that should be a that or noting that a word has been used three times in two sentences is about all the writing reconstruction the job description covers.

Editorial proofreading opens more doors for change. It's expected that more be done, but still nothing extreme. At this level, rather than simply offering suggestions, changes - again, nothing major - can and should be changed.

At the level of copyediting, language is shaped a bit more. Sentences are evaluated: Is it wordy? Ambiguous? Repetitious? Appropriate for its audience? Logical? Does the main point stand out? The work is considered as a whole: Are the topics presented in an effective order, or would another order make the information clearer? Copyediting involves questioning the manuscript constantly; however, the level at which this is done depends on whether a client is looking for light, medium or heavy copyediting.

Substantive editing is the most hands-on level of editing. It's also called content editing. It addresses not just how something is said, but what is being said. License is given to simply rewrite portions of text or reorganize the work to present content more effectively.


Ideally, editorial changes are made first, followed by proofreading to catch small items that may have been overlooked along the way. The line between proofreading and copyediting is very often blurred, and in reality, a little - or a lot - of both are done when editing a manuscript.

Copyediting is done early in the process to solve larger problems that could have a big effect later in the process. To copyedit is to check consistency and accuracy. Although part of copyediting may be to proofread to remove common errors, a copyeditor must also maintain the structure and tone of the project.

Proofreading is done to look for typos, misspellings, and other on-the-surface errors. Proofreading is usually done toward the end of the process; the book has already been designed and all the material is present.

Very often both are performed simultaneously, with more emphasis on copyediting initially, and thorough proofreading being performed to "polish" the project - unless of course the editor is asked specifically to find only the errors that fall under the category of standard proofreading.


No matter what level of editing is performed, the message being conveyed by the writer must be crystal clear!







Partial Source: McGraw-Hill Desk Reference for Editors, Writers and Proofreaders

A Look Into "Proofreading"

The following is taken from the first post I wrote when I entered the blogosphere. I'm featuring it today as an introduction of tomorrow's post, where I'll provide a more in-depth look at the subject.

There's More to Proofreading Than Just Reading!

Part of the job of a good proofreader is to not only find the errors, but also having the ability to find the right words to get the writer's message across to the reader in a clear and concise manner.

Proofreading itself involves pretty much the obvious: misspelled words, incorrect punctuation and grammatical errors.

Copyediting is another aspect and is a bit more involved. When editing written material, a copyeditor looks for proper structure and "flow." The last thing a reader wants is to have to "work" at reading. The written words should be as readable as if they were being spoken aloud. Of course this goes without saying that the speaker be well-versed in the proper use of the English language.

So, you have proofreading for spelling, punctuation and grammar; copyediting for structure and proper content. What other element or skill is essential in the process of polishing a manuscript?

Writing. In order to be of value to a client, a "proofreader" should definitely possess excellent writing abilities. If something is written without proper format or composition, how could that possibly be remedied unless your editor has the ability to find the right words and use them in the correct order, so that what you are writing is understandable and reads with ease?

What is most commonly referred to as proofreading obviously involves more than merely finding a misplaced comma or a misspelled word. Please be sure to read tomorrow's post, where I'll provide a more detailed look into the differences between proofreading and copyediting - and the various levels of editing.

Spelling Challenge

It's Fun Friday's Spelling Challenge! And, at the very end of this post are the words that were misspelled in yesterday's Thorough Thursday challenge.

Do you have your sticky note and pen ready? Great! Let's get started! Write down the correct spelling for this week's words. As usual the answers are listed below.

NO PEEKING!


1. athiest
2. bellweather
3. concensus
4. dumbell
5. exhilerate
6. hierachy
7. innoculate
8. liason
9. occurrance
10. pronounciation

BONUS WORD
perogative

Now lets see if you can add to that collection of virtual stars you have!
As you know, If you spell all 10 words correctly
you get a sparkling GOLD star! (Isn't it pretty?)



If you spell the bonus word correctly
you get the prized, very special, much coveted and very beautiful
Crystal Clear Proofing PURPLE star!


For spelling all the words, including the bonus word correctly
you get a GOLD AND a PURPLE star!
(And you ROCK!)



ANSWERS:

1. atheist
2. bellwether
3. consensus
4. dumbbell
5. exhilarate
6. hierarchy
7. inoculate
8. liaison
9. occurrence
10. pronunciation

BONUS WORD:
prerogative



So? How'd you do this week? How many of those stunning stars do you get to add to your collection? To those of you who earned stars...

Here is yesterday's Thorough Thursday post in its entirety, with the errors corrected and highlighted in red.

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Early History

The practice of making extra copies of manuscripts goes back to ancient times; in Rome there were booksellers—Horace mentions the Sosii, who were apparently brothers—and the copying of books by trained slaves reached considerable proportions. With the introduction of printing into Europe in the middle of the 15th century, book publishing sprang into lively existence. The author, the printer, and the publisher of a work were sometimes all the same person, as in the case of members of the Estienne family in France in the 16th cent. The differentiation of printer, publisher, and bookseller appeared early, however, as patrons of literature had books printed for distribution and booksellers had their printing done by others to meet the growing demand.

The Emergence of Publishing Houses

The first important publishing house (1583–1791) was that of the Elzevir family in Holland. The Elzevirs were businessmen rather than scholars, and the business of bookselling grew as literacy increased. Concurrently, printing, publishing, and bookselling spread learning across the West. Religious controversy bred polemics, and arguments printed in broadsides, pamphlets, and books were handed out zealously and bought eagerly by partisans. An interest in knowing the future also increased the amount of literature issued by bookseller-publishers, and almanacs and the like were issued for the wider public.


*******************************************************************************Between the Spelling Challenge and the Thorougness Challenge, you all deserve a little recognition! So let's spread some of that famous Crystal Clear Proofing HAPPY and award everyone for their efforts with the fun, new SMILEY STAR!






And wishing you all a very