In the past, the technical content of proofreading was very low, mainly "proofreading similarities and differences", that is, taking the author's manuscript as a sample, proofreading whether the printed manuscript is consistent with the original. At that time, most writers wrote manuscripts by hand, and their writing level was excellent, so they often followed the author's manuscripts.
But now, publishing is no longer so sacred. As long as you are willing to spend money, it is ok to publish at your own expense and become the mainstream. In our organization, self-funded publishing has accounted for the bulk of operating income. So the overall level of the manuscript is poor.
At this point, the duty of proofreading is no longer to proofread similarities and differences, but to "proofread right and wrong." The so-called right and wrong, is to use their own level of knowledge to find mistakes in the manuscript, including typos, sick sentences, factual errors, political errors, and some format errors, and so on.
There is a lot of information in the manuscript, and the mistakes are quite different. It's really hard to find out all the mistakes. This test is about your knowledge and your mastery.
Of course, no amount of proofreading can find out all the mistakes in the manuscript, so the quality of a book depends on ensuring that the mistakes are below one ten thousandth, that is, there are less than 10 mistakes in10,000 words.
Looking at the current book market, there are still many books that do not meet the standard of less than 1/10000. Therefore, every year, the National Quality Inspection Association will publicize some unqualified books and publishers, and even impose fines as punishment.
The quality control of books, besides editing, is proofreading. Proofreading often goes through three proofreadings, which are undertaken by proofreaders with different experiences and levels. The three proofreaders will find out the mistakes step by step and correct them to make the manuscript meet the publishing requirements.
Since proofreading is so important, how can we grow into an excellent proofreader? I think at least the following requirements should be met:
For any industry and anyone, life and study are necessary. Publishing is actually the vane of society and the mouthpiece of politics. In different times, the book market will also present different characteristics. Therefore, our study is dynamic, extensive and must be in-depth, because proofreading a book requires thorough understanding.
I once proofread a book about the Book of Changes, which contained many ancient texts and modern interpretations. It can be said that this book is difficult to understand, but as long as you understand the meaning of ancient Chinese, it is easy to proofread. How to understand ancient Chinese? Read the original text, read the notes and chew it down. In this way, I also gained a lot.
At this point, some people may ask, learning is really important, but how to learn? What are you studying?
The first is to learn various standards and norms.
Every line has its own standards, and the publishing industry is no exception. Don't think that words are flexible and can be used at will. In fact, there are many norms. What we use most often is Modern Chinese Dictionary (7th edition). This dictionary will be updated in a few years, and it needs to be updated when we proofread it.
Every word has its own meaning, and the meaning of different sentences will change. If you are not careful, the author used it wrong. For example, bearing the brunt is the most wrong. Many people think that the first thing to do is to rush ahead first, that is, to go forward bravely. In fact, this means the first one to be hit. Poor, Wan Li.
In addition, some words, fixed collocation, can not be changed. And some words have been abandoned and replaced by new words. Variant characters and traditional characters can't appear in our manuscripts, except for place names and names, which can be kept.
In addition to modern Chinese, there is also a dictionary worth recommending, that is, Ci Hai. Cihai is an encyclopedia dictionary. Celebrities, cities, historical events and species all over the world can basically be found, which is the basis for us to judge the facts wrong.
In addition, there are the usage of punctuation marks, the usage of numbers in publications, and the basic rules of Chinese pinyin orthography. These are all national standards, so just sit in the right position. There are often authoritative experts or senior editors in this industry to give lectures and training, so that courseware will spread, which is also an important learning material.
The second is to learn from excellent proofreaders.
The power of example is enormous. If you have excellent proofreaders around you, you can learn from them, because their brains are an encyclopedia. You can ask them for some knowledge that you can't get the exact answer, and they can also tell you some proofreading methods.
For example, when I judged whether Li Jingde was in the Southern Song Dynasty or the Northern Song Dynasty, I relied on a book "Zhuzi School" compiled by him. Zhu was born in the Southern Song Dynasty, so Li Jingde can't be from the Northern Song Dynasty. This kind of reasoning and judgment was taught to me by my leader.
The leader I have introduced in many articles is the best proofreader in Guangdong at present. He is not only experienced, but also has a unique vision. I benefited a lot from learning from him.
The third is to obtain a qualification certificate.
Textual research is actually a kind of knowledge. The publishing industry mainly needs to take the primary and intermediate qualification certificates.
Junior, you can be admitted in the first year of graduation. Just entering the publishing industry, I don't know how to learn the basic knowledge and practice of the primary examination. These two books will give you a general understanding of book publishing.
Intermediate level can be tested in the fifth year of graduation (for undergraduate education), the content is more difficult, but it also focuses on some published knowledge, but more on theoretical knowledge. Nowadays, digital publishing is also in full swing. Research is a multiple-choice question, not a compulsory one, but people engaged in new media still need to know about it.
All learning, in the final analysis, is for practice, that is, proofreading manuscripts. A book that has not been proofread often makes some low-level mistakes, such as typos, typos, and typesetting problems. Our duty is to eliminate these mistakes before publication.
As mentioned earlier, proofreaders need a wide range of knowledge, which can be obtained from school manuscripts and consulted a large number of relevant materials and books. If every book is taken seriously and understood thoroughly, knowledge will naturally accumulate. I go to school a lot and have rich experience. Is it far from becoming an excellent proofreader?
Proofreading is boring, especially for self-funded systematic books, that is, cultural projects of government departments, which are similar to eight-part essays. There are also some little-known authors who publish at their own expense, with poor writing and poor quality. However, they are food and clothing parents, and we still have to be patient and serious proofreaders.
In addition, as I said in other articles, the salary level of proofreaders is not high, and they cannot be rich or expensive. Even if they can do part-time jobs and earn more, they are very meager.
This requires us to have a calm heart, not tired of material things, not annoyed by boredom, just for a little love for words and a little affection for publishing. Only by calming down and burying yourself in the pile of books can you finally become an excellent proofreader.