Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- 1 The editor in context
- 2 The publishing process
- 3 Management and liaison
- 4 Substance and structure
- 5 Language
- 6 Illustrations and tables
- 7 Completeness and consistency
- 8 Proofs
- 9 Editing methods
- 10 Working with documents and files
- 11 Freelance editing
- Appendix: Australian Standards for Editing Practice
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- 1 The editor in context
- 2 The publishing process
- 3 Management and liaison
- 4 Substance and structure
- 5 Language
- 6 Illustrations and tables
- 7 Completeness and consistency
- 8 Proofs
- 9 Editing methods
- 10 Working with documents and files
- 11 Freelance editing
- Appendix: Australian Standards for Editing Practice
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
Angus & Robertson, in the glory days when Beatrice Davis was their senior editor, used to consider three typos per book was a reasonable amount, and that's still a target to aim at. Of course, there is huge potential for mistakes in any publication–all those letters, words, names, dates, facts, numbers and typography–and the closer you are to it the harder it is to see them. It's common for experienced editors to glance at a proofread page and immediately spot an error that the proofreader has missed. This is not a sneer at proofreaders; it just demonstrates how hard it is to detect errors in print. It's fatally easy to miss typos in the displayed type of titles and headings.
Some editors claim that the process of reading actually creates typos. The action of passing one's eyes over the text, they say, disarranges or moves the letters; consequently, the more often a page is read, the more errors there are. Despite considerable anecdotal evidence about this effect, rigorous scientific investigation has proved that it is illusory. Editors should, however, understand the operation of Muphry's Law of Proofreading, as stated by John Bangsund:
Muphry's Law is the editorial application of the better-known Murphy's Law. Muphry's Law dictates that (a) if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written; (b) if an author thanks you in a book for your editing or proofreading, there will be mistakes in the book; (c) the stronger the sentiment expressed in (a) and (b), the greater the fault; (d) any book devoted to editing or style will be internally inconsistent.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Editor's Companion , pp. 123 - 137Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004