Tech Biz Writing

Tedious thought it may seem, the only way to master punctuation properly is to go through the elements of it one by one. The rules are not quite as onerous as most of us remember from our schooldays. In fact they’re great fun if we approach them in the right spirit of enterprise.

To command the dizzy heights of superior punctuating, only twelve elements need to be learned. Grasp these and you are in control. One hour of your time and you’ll be master of the dot in dotcom, if nothing else.

Enough of the pep talk, let’s get down to business.

Full stop
Or “point” in American. This minuscule entity ends all sentences which don’t end with a question mark or exclamation mark. The next character is usually a capital letter.

It can also be used for abbreviations: etc. or e.g.

After a quotation, the full stop goes inside the quotation marks if the whole sentence is the quote; outside the quotation marks, if the quote is only a part of the sentence.

Comma
Of all the objects in the world of punctuation, the comma is the most problematical. Placing this curiously attractive little entity in a sentence is a minefield of rules and, even worse, opinions. The old-school, rather disciplinarian approach, was to place a comma at every point where there was a natural pause for breath. Nowadays, whole texts seem to rush by with scarcely a comma to be seen. The latter solution is clearly unsatisfactory because it results in much ambiguity of meaning. The following is a fairly comprehensive guide to comma usage using the system suggested by Oxford University.

a) Between similar qualifying adjectives: “An abstemious, taciturn woman.”
But if there is no similarity, there is no comma: “A dull grey shirt.” Just think list. Abstemious and taciturn are a short list of qualities pertaining to the woman. Whereas dull and grey are different qualities; indeed a form of grey might well be described as dull. It’s clearly not a list.

b) Separating items in a list: “Books, CDs, and videos.” The comma after CDs is sometimes omitted. It’s often known as the “Oxford comma”.
Exception: “A black and white picture.” Where black and white form a recognisable phrase rather than a list. Black and white could be changed to monochrome. “Books, CDs” is not reducible because it is a list.

c) Separating co-ordinated main clauses: “Residents to the left, visitors to the right.”
Exception — when they are closely allied: “Listen to me and you might learn something.”

d) For parenthetical words/phrases: “If you do go, however, you may regret it.” Or “The man, who was not strong, soon gave up.”
Exceptions — restrictive relative clauses: “People who are short should wear high heels.”

e) Following participial or verbless clauses. “Having gone for a walk, I felt a whole lot better.” “The concert over, the audience left.”
Exception — “My daughter Mary.”

f) A separating comma is used to avoid misunderstanding: “From the houses above, the church seemed very small.” Otherwise you would read: From the houses above the church…followed by the meaningless “seemed very small.” These nuances can be very important, especially in technical writing where unclear instructions could lead to danger.
Exceptions: do not use a comma to separate a verb from an object that is a clause: “They thought, that they had it made.” is wrong, as is a comma used to separate a phrasal subject from its predicate: “A man with great strength, should always be careful of others.”

g) Use after words which introduce quoted speech: “He shouted, ‘Watch your back!’”

h) In letters following Dear Susan, Dear Sir, &c., and after Yours faithfully, etc.

But it’s not necessary following a number in an address, e.g. “10 Downing Street”; or between month and year in a date, e.g. “October 2001”.

Semicolon
A comma is the least emphatic break in a sentence. If there is a need for a more distinct break, but not sufficient for a new sentence — always a hair-line decision — a semicolon is mustered. Usually the semi will divide clauses of equal importance and similar grammatical construction, e.g. “Waking is a pleasure; sleeping on even better.” It may also be used in a sentence where commas are already employed, but where a stronger break is called for, e.g. “They approached quickly, though with some trepidation, and took stock of the situation; but decided it was none of their business.”

Colon
a) The colon connects two grammatically complete clauses where the second represents a step forward from the first, or gives further explanation, e.g. “The idea had widespread support: the merging of the two groups would improve finances.”

b) To introduce a list: one, two, three. Or after expressions, “For example”, “the following”, &c.

c) For an emphatic, formalized introduction to speech, “He emphasised: ‘Don’t do it!’”

Next: 61, Punctuation — Part 2.

Development, Line, and Content Editors
If a lot of work, or development, is needed on a manuscript, it is usually handed to the Development Editor. This may be the Senior Editor, or it may even be done by a very well-proven copyeditor side by side with the copyediting itself. These folk are also referred to as Line Editors, because they work line by line with the author, or even as Content Editors, because they are concerned with the structure of the text, which needs considerable adjustment.

As you can see, distinguishing between different types of editing is no simple matter, largely because there’s no fixed demarcation drawn between them, and different publishers have a variety of ways and means of doing them. Editors often double up on tasks, and, if someone is on leave, others may pick up the cudgel for them.

Line editing is quite a specialised activity, though, depending as it does on preserving the author’s style. Line editors often work with the author to produce the manuscript — the recent case of Joan Collins, who was taken to court by her publisher for submitting a substandard MS, and who blamed the absence of a Line Editor for the fiasco, is a good reminder of the importance of the breed.

The Commandments of Writing
These “commandments” were said to have been copied from a notice in the US Congress. Editors take note:

• Don’t use no double negative.
• Make each pronoun agree with their antecedent.
• Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.
• About them sentence fragments.
• When dangling, watch your participles.
• Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
• Just between you and I, case is important too.
• Don’t write run-on sentences they are hard to read.
• Don’t use commas, which aren’t necessary.
• Try to not ever use split infinitives.
• Its important to use your apostrophe’s correctly.
• Proofread your writing to see if you any words out.
• Correct spelling is esential.

The Production & Managing Editors
In book and magazine publishing the Managing Editor is usually just that: a manager. He/she will control much of the editing process by outsourcing work to freelancers. The Managing Editor may not even read the MSS as they come in. To get freelance work in this area, it’s usually this person you have to apply to.

The Production Editor is the first main point of contact in the production process, all content problems having been resolved by this stage. Quite often there will be either a Production Editor or a Managing Editor, the roles overlap so much. The job is almost always advertised along the lines of: “Manuscript to finished copy”. It is an in-house job and an important as well as varied one.

The Verifier or Fact Checker
Such folk spend all their time verifying facts and statements in manuscripts scheduled for press. In technical writing and editing, it’s one of the most vital areas in the production process — mistakes can be very costly in terms of time, money, and reputation. It should never be skimped

The Copyeditor
The unit on copyediting will give more precise definitions of what exactly a copyeditor does. For now we’ll give a brief outline for completion in this section.

Copyediting is, let’s face it, the lowest form of editing there is. Paradoxically, it’s also one of the most important. A poorly copyedited book, or even worse, one that hasn’t been copyedited at all, is a disgrace to the publishing industry and, I regret to say, is becoming more and more commonplace as sub-publishers rely on spellcheckers and grammar software to do the job. That these don’t work unless checked themselves is well known even to fourth formers, let alone the big-wigs of the book trade. Too often authors are expected to send in word processed copy on disk which is perfectly copyedited and proofed. Some do, many don’t.

A good copyeditor, if asked, will fill in many of the gaps that the initial process has missed. If a book is worth publishing, it’s worth copyediting. Thankfully, the best publishers still acknowledge this truism.

The Proofreader
Proofreading generally comes below copyediting in the publishing pecking order. It is, however, the final textual check before production. The proofreader is the back-stop of the process. If he misses anything, it’s too late to put right. Many a good title has been saved by an observant and intelligent proofreader who, if justice is done, will soon be entrusted with copyediting and even line editing jobs. The unit which covers proofreading, gives greater detail.

Next: 60. Punctuation — Part 1.

Final draft
Copy preparation: The following points should be observed when preparing copy for the typist or compositor:

* Use double spacing
* Type or print on one side of the paper
* Be legible
* Number each sheet consecutively
* Circle keying instruction so that they don’t become part of the text
* Conform to house style.

Cast off: Estimating the length of a document in terms of pages. Word processor packages, like MS Word, will give you the number of characters and words. No-one manually estimates these now.
Prelims: Preliminary pages. These may be:

* Half-title page
* Half-title verso
* Title page
* Title verso
* Preface/foreword
* Contents list
* List of illustrations.

End pages: The final pages in a book following the body text:

* Conclusions
* Postscript
* Glossary
* Notes/references
* Appendixes/annexes
* Bibliography
* Index.

Production Phase

Proofreading
Types of proof: There are three types of proof in the traditional printing process:

* Galley proofs
* Page proofs
* Machine proofs.

There is also an intermediate stage of proofing referred to as “page-on-galley” proofs. The first two categories indicate the textual arrangement of the type, but not the final print finish. The machine proof approximates this quality.
Corrections at proof stage: Two types of correction are acknowledged by printers:

* Compositors’ errors corrected by printer or author.
* Author’s corrections indicated during proofreading.

The first are usually made gratis, but the second may be limited to 10% of the total cost of composition.

Next : 57. Reinforcements - Printing

Proofreading is done by the author (and others) on special sheets provided by the printer. “Proofs” are example pages taken from the printing medium, as set or photographed, and fall generally into three kinds:

* Galley proofs
* Page proofs
* Machine proofs

The first two categories of proof are representative of the textual arrangement of the type, but not of the final print finish. The machine proof, on the other hand, approximates the condition of the printed book in areas of quality.

Galleys are taken at an early point in the typesetting procedure, and do not indicate the eventual configuration of the pages in the book. Traditionally, the compositor would set the type in a clamped frame called a galley. The printed sheets derived from this would be sent to the writer for proofreading; the principal aim being to reduce the number of changes needed later on in the process when amendments are much more costly.

The page proofs, indicating actual book pages, are taken when the lengths of run-on text are composed into the correct page size. Pagination and other page references can now be incorporated into the text, and the index put into its final shape. Modern books, printed by lithographic techniques, are often proofread only at this stage. For a more comprehensive consideration of proofreading, plus tables of proofing symbols, see the later discussion.

To gain an impression of the finished print quality, a machine proof must be requested from the printer. The reason for this is that page proofs are usually taken on a small printing press specially set aside for the purpose. By its nature it lacks the sophisticated facilities of the more elaborate production machines, and doesn’t therefore produce anything like the eventual print finish that may be expected. A machine proof is one that is taken from the actual production press and, while it gives a high quality sample, it’s an expensive operation, since the machine is temporarily taken out of its high productivity role.

On the question of the costs involved at the proofing stage, authors should know that there is a limit to the number and extent of changes they can make in this area. Generally, printers acknowledge two types of correction:

* Compositor’s errors
* Author’s corrections

The first are redressed free of charge to the author and his contractor. Author’s correction, however, are usually limited to a figure around 10% of the cost of typesetting. Printers expect, and with some justification, that most problems of grammar, spelling or content will have been filtered out by this stage.

A margin is allowed of course, but it should be borne in mind that 10% of costs does not mean 10% of the text can be amended. The actual figure is disproportionately smaller that this, and any over-run is charged to the writer’s or publisher’s account. Indeed. the margin is so tight that there is, for practical purposes, scarcely any room for rewriting the text at this point. An inexperienced writer would do well to cultivate a measure of self-discipline in these matters.

Next: 35. Printing.