Turn your knack for language into a lucrative career Must-know techniques and resources for maximizing your accuracy and speed Interested in becoming a copyeditor or proofreader? Want to know more about what each job entails? This friendly guide helps you position yourself for success. Polish your skills, build a winning résumé and land the job you've always wanted. Books, magazines, Web sites, corporate documents - find out how to improve any type of publication and make yourself indispensable to writers, editors, and your boss. Balance between style and rules Master the art of the query Use proofreader symbols Edit and proof electronic documents Build a solid freelancing career

This is a guide to freelance proofreading and copy-editing, with examples of proof correction marks and exercises with corrections supplied.

Expert advice to perfect your proofreading skills McGraw-Hill’s Proofreading Handbook helps ensure that your documents are letter-perfect, every time. Veteran editor and proofreader Laura Anderson arms you with all the tools of the proofreader’s trade and walks you step-by-step through the entire proofreading process.

The Copyeditor's Handbook is a lively, practical manual for newcomers to publishing and for experienced editors who want to fine-tune their skills or broaden their understanding of the craft. Addressed to copyeditors in book publishing and corporate communications, this thoughtful handbook explains what copyeditors do, what they look for when they edit a manuscript, and how they develop the editorial judgment needed to make sound decisions. This revised edition reflects the most recent editions of The Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.), and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.).

Each year writers and editors submit over three thousand grammar and style questions to the Q&A page at The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Some are arcane, some simply hilarious—and one editor, Carol Fisher Saller, reads every single one of them. All too often she notes a classic author-editor standoff, wherein both parties refuse to compromise on the "rights" and "wrongs" of prose styling: "This author is giving me a fit." "I wish that I could just DEMAND the use of the serial comma at all times." "My author wants his preface to come at the end of the book. This just seems ridiculous to me. I mean, it’s not a post-face." In The Subversive Copy Editor, Saller casts aside this adversarial view and suggests new strategies for keeping the peace. Emphasizing habits of carefulness, transparency, and flexibility, she shows copy editors how to build an environment of trust and cooperation. One chapter takes on the difficult author; another speaks to writers themselves. Throughout, the focus is on serving the reader, even if it means breaking "rules" along the way. Saller’s own foibles and misadventures provide ample material: "I mess up all the time," she confesses. "It’s how I know things." Writers, Saller acknowledges, are only half the challenge, as copy editors can also make trouble for themselves. (Does any other book have an index entry that says "terrorists. See copy editors"?) The book includes helpful sections on e-mail etiquette, work-flow management, prioritizing, and organizing computer files. One chapter even addresses the special concerns of freelance editors. Saller’s emphasis on negotiation and flexibility will surprise many copy editors who have absorbed, along with the dos and don’ts of their stylebooks, an attitude that their way is the right way. In encouraging copy editors to banish their ignorance and disorganization, insecurities and compulsions, the Chicago Q&A presents itself as a kind of alter ego to the comparatively staid Manual of Style. In The Subversive Copy Editor, Saller continues her mission with audacity and good humor.

"I never fast before medical procedures-it gives me joy to confuse the doctors. I think they like it, too, gives them more of a challenge. Once, on the way to have my kidney removed, I stopped at an all-you-can-eat buffet for a large plate of beef kidneys with mushrooms and garlic. You should have seen the expression on the surgeon's face when he opened me up and had to spot which kidney was mine and which belonged to the beef. I couldn't see his expression though because I was under anesthesia." "Did you have dreams?" "As a child, yes, many times. Dreamed of cowboys, Indians, ghosts, flies in the soup . . ." "Me, I still dream, even now as an adult, even now as I sit here. But I always forget the dreams, so I can't be sure if I really had them or if they were just a dream. How's the duck?" "It's quite exquisite. Like a chicken mixed with a lake. Please, have some." The woman used her fork to take a tiny, almost invisible piece of duck from the man's plate. She drowned it in vinegar, blew on it for a long minute, then ate it while closing her eyes. Egglike is the first novel by musician and artist Adi Gelbart.

Proofreading all written material, from business memos to term papers to bestselling books to printed ad pieces.

A set of 50 fascinating, disturbing, moving or funny short books published in an appealing new format to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Penguin Modern Classics

Everyone in the newsroom agrees that copy editors are the unsung heroes in the business who, until now, have never had a succinct and authoritative guide for on-the-job use. From counting the headline to line breaks, from decks to jumps, from editing numbers and photo captions to editing for organization, The Copy Editing and Headline Handbook is the complete source of essential information for the copy editor. Whether copy editing on a computer or on the printed page, for a newspaper or for a magazine, Barbara Ellis shows how to clean, organize, and proof copy like a pro. With special sections on libel, captions, forbidden words, job hazards, and head counts, as well as a section of the most commonly used symbols in copy editing and proofreading, the Handbook is essential for every copy editor's bookshelf.