COPY-EDITING AND/OR PROOFREADING EXAMINABLE TEXTS: WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT AND SO EXACTING?

John Linnegar, copy-editor, proofreader, trainer

Tuesday 26 January 5.00 pm COURSE FEES R115; Staff and students R58

Are you a postgraduate writing up your research study as a thesis/dissertation? Are you considering venturing into copy-editing this genre? Or curious about the process of refining an examinable text in preparation for its presentation to examiners? Then this presentation could be just the ticket for you.

The text of a thesis/dissertation must remain (largely) the author’s own original words and reflect their own original thinking and argumentation. This copy-editors have to keep top of mind as they improve such texts. But what if the student-writer has English as their second or a foreign language? That can be a major hurdle for them. And what if the interventions of their supervisor have not elevated the document to a level that will impress examiners?

In these circumstances, a competent copy-editor, as part of the student-writer, supervisor, copy-editor troika, usually has to come to their rescue while ensuring that the work remains largely the student’s own. Some say that only very light editing, or ‘proofreading’, should be permitted. But what must be done when suspect structure or matters of fact, and inconsistencies, are detected?

During this session, some approaches to acceptable editorial intervention in examinable works will certainly be revealed, using a number of documents: raw unedited texts and the copy-edited end-product that is examiner-ready.

Recommended reading

Henning, E, Gravett, S and Van Rensburg, W. 2005. Finding Your Way in Academic Writing. Van Schaik Publishers.

Hofstee, E. 2006. Constructing a Good Dissertation. Sandton: Epe.

Institute of Professional Editors Limited (IPEd). Guidelines for Editing Research Theses (IPEd, 2019). https://www.iped-editors.org/about-editing/editing-research-theses/

Linnegar, J and McGillivray, K. 2024. Academic Writing & Editing: Towards Clear, Concise and Coherent Texts.

MLA Publishers/McGillivray Linnegar Associates.

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