Hi Jamie,
Here's my take on proofreading. When you proof a book you do read every
word. But you don't take it all in as you would if you were only reading it.
Instead, your mind is engaged in the process of solving puzzles and riddles.
Each font presents its special kind of challenges. As you read you are
checking for accuracy and that's a very short-term second-by-second process.
A friend of mind who is a lawyer told me this story. His mother read a lot
of his law books to him when he was in college. Her friends would say to
her: You should become a lawyer yourself; you are learning so much law. She
said, I'm paying attention in how to read and I'm not taking in the
concepts. I think proofing is the same. That doesn't mean you have no
recollection of the material but it's a very different experience than
reading the book.
I use speech and a braille display. Mainly, I listen using Eloquence which
gives a very clear presentation of the material. When I begin preparing a
book I do some standard things that Bookshare requires: fixing the
asterisks, fixing spaces before and after hyphens, removing spaces before
punctuation marks and after open parentheses. With experience you get a feel
for what you can do globally and what you have to do manually.
Then, as I'm reading a book, if I come across an error, I look for all
instances of that error in the book.
Every book I work on tires me mentally to the point where I'm glad to be
done with it. But I strive for and achieve a high level of accuracy and that
gives me the satisfaction that is necessary to justify the time spent on
these books.
Here are a few of my puzzles that I might look for in a book before
beginning reading it:
,j: names beginning with j sometimes follow a comma without a space.
Eloquence won't mispronounce such a situation so I might check this is a new
book to see if it comes up.
Ofthe: sometimes the word of doesn't have the space it should have before
the word the or that or then. I might check for this is a book by searching
for ofth and fixing any occurrences if there are any.
A lot of books I do have dates. So I will check two hyphens followed by the
numbers 1 to 9 the see if there are instances of a dash instead of a hyphen
in a date: example, 1890--1901 which should read 1890-1901.
Another thing I do: if page numbers are at the bottom of the page I type the
numbers at the top of the page. Since I use Kurzweil this is easy to do
without making mistakes. Usually I remove the page numbers at the bottom
before beginning to proof the book.
This note isn't a teaching manual and there are many other things to check
for. But with experience you pick up the kinds of things you can look for
when beginning to work on a book.
I have my Kurzweil program set to catch foreign language diacritics like the
acute e in café. This may cause some e's to have an acute symbol when there
is no acute. So I usually check for this symbol. I do the same with the
circumflex a because that letter occasionally catches that symbol when it
shouldn't. And my version of Kurzweil often converts an acute symbol into a
circumflex so I check for this kind of error.
These are quite sophisticated examples but they illustrate how one's
experience can help one improve the quality of the transcription.
I also use the internet to validate spellings if I wonder whether there is
an OCR error.
One other thing. I have a sighted partner. If I find anything in a book I
can't figure out I mark it and check with my partner. One can figure out
many things through context but numbers are a good example of where context
won't work. So if there is any question about numbers or fractions or very
unusual names, I mark it and check with him.
In summary, proof if you want to donate your time and it gives you
satisfaction. But if you want to read and really take in a book, read it
instead. Or, proof it first and then read it after you've proofed it.
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Jamie Pauls
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2022 11:35 AM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Looking for Strategies for Proofreading Books
Hello, all. I have been a Bookshare volunteer for a long time but it has
been a while since I have scanned or proofread a book. I am wondering if any
of you have some thoughts on how to best go about the task of proofreading.
I know that it is important to read every word of the text in question, and
I tend to choose books I am personally interested in. I find that when I fix
errors as I go, I lose the flow of what I am reading and can become
disengaged easily, thus not completing the job. I am thinking about making
as many changes and corrections as possible either at the start or end of
the project rather than doing everything sequentially, and wondered what
many of you more experienced proofers thought. Anxious to hear your
feedback.
