Stephen York Editorial Services – for academic, business and educational proofreading
Professional quality proofreading for better communication
Abbreviations, contractions, and acronyms are ways of shortening a word or phrase but sometimes can be confusing for a novice writer. I will take each one briefly in turn.
There are some myths about proofreading that are untrue and need exposing and refuting.
During proofreading I frequently come across some words that have been confused time and again. This is the first part of an occasional series looking at a few examples and … Continue Reading Confused words: A to C
In praise of whisky / whiskey I am rather partial to a drop of whisky now and again (whiskey if you are Irish or American) and I am not alone … Continue Reading Celebrity quotations on whisky
You might think that it is a relatively easy matter of adding an ‘s’ to a noun in order to pluralize it, for example adding s to cat to form … Continue Reading Plurals of nouns: Some exceptional cases
The following tips for getting the most out of your freelance proofreader are based on those suggested on the website of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP), with a … Continue Reading Ten tips for getting the most out of your proofreader
Looking at the spread of rhyming slang to other English-speaking countries, especially those that had strong maritime links with the UK historically, such as Australia and USA.
Slang where words are replaced by a words or phrases with which they rhyme.
Publishers are not the only ones that require and benefit from proofreading services. Below are a few instances of other people or bodies who can benefit from the attention and skill of an experienced proofreader, together with relevant links to my website for further information.
Proofreading is the last stage of the editing process for a document and should only be carried out once all other revisions by the author / contributors and amendments by the copy-editor have taken place. Proofreading therefore has an important role in publishing and business as it is the last chance to correct any errors before the book or document is published.
Oxford Dictionary of English defines this as “the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body”. For instance, sights or sounds might evoke sensations of taste or colour.
A pen name, also known as a nom de plume, is an assumed name used by a writer instead of their own real name. It can also be a variant form of their real name and might be known only to the publisher or might be widely known.
Roman (that is upright type) is the standard text typeface, but for various reasons italic type (that is slanted to the right) is adopted. This is often to indicate some form of departure from normal text for the reader to interpret the word or words in a certain way.
Biased language refers to words and phrases that can be considered hurtful, offensive, and prejudiced. Biased language includes expressions or terms that demean or exclude people because of age, ethnicity, marital status, race, religion, politics, sex, sexual orientation, social class, or certain physical or mental traits.
Sexist language refers to words, terms, or usages that discriminate against or exclude either of the sexes, and that assume maleness, or even femaleness is the standard.
Despite many years of feminist campaigners and attempts to raise awareness of the use of sexist language, it still widely exists in modern life.
Put yourself in your readers’ shoes: how would you feel if you had received a document or publication from someone that contained numerous errors and inconsistencies? Even worse if you had paid good money for it. You would might possibly feel insulted that they could not be bothered to ensure their output was readable and free of errors.
