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Proofreading symbols: How important are they to learn during high school?


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I think I was asking the wrong question in my other thread:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=346594

 

so I started a new thread with a question that more accurately reflects what I'm wondering.

 

How important is it to learn *proofreading symbols and how to use them in editing?*

 

I think I finally figured out that editing/proofreading is the *activity* that is important, and that proofreading *symbols* are a tool for that activity. But do we need to actually learn and use proofreading symbols (for example, those taught in R&S 9/10)? When teaching high school students who are still learning to apply their grammatical/mechanical knowledge to the writing skills that they are also in the process of learning and practicing?

 

It just seems to me that it is easier for the teacher just to circle grammatical/mechanical errors with, say, a red pen; and let the student figure out (IOW, to recall his/her grammar/mechanic knowledge to mind) how to fix the mistakes. Or, to let the student go through his/her own paper, reading it aloud, circling the errors, and making his/her own notes on what needs to be fixed (of course, with teacher looking it over afterwards) once he/she gets back to the word processor.

 

I'm thinking I can ditch the proofreading-symbols lessons of R&S 9/10 (in which we'll also be ditching other writing lessons, in order to just keep the grammar/mechanic lessons). But because of my inexperience, I know I could be missing something in my thinking. I would be happy to keep the proofreading-symbols lessons, though, if someone or someones could fix any flaws in my thinking.

 

Thank you for your patience as I plan for high school! :D

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I replied in the other post, but I'll just copy my reply over here:

 

I don't think the "official" editing marks are necessary to learn, unless you want to be a professional editor at a publisher's.

My husband is a scientist and has to publish papers all the time, often in collaboration with other scientists or graduate students. He edits, they edit, editing is going on back and forth a LOT. Nobody in that community uses the formal symbols - but papers get edited just fine.

I am not sure how much editing is done on paper nowadays anyway. When we have collaborative projects that involve text, you just get sent the file, and you input your comments and corrections right into the file in a different color.

I see editing marks as something that will soon go the way of the typewriter.

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I don't know that it is necessary to use them all the time, but I think a student should be familiar with them if they plan to attend college. Any professors I had in the English dept, amd even my theatre professors, used many of the standard editing symbols. They circled things and made notes too, but I had a lot of symbols on my papers. Had I not known what they meant, I would have had a hard time revising my work.

 

I don't know what symbols are taught in R&S, I don't have those levels, but symbols I saw and used were the paragraph symbol (p with double line on side), double underline for capitalize, and the curved line for reversing words it phrases. Those were used all the time by my professors, there may have been others, but it has been a while ;)

 

Important to drill....maybe not, important to at least know what they are...yes.

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I don't know that it is necessary to use them all the time, but I think a student should be familiar with them if they plan to attend college. Any professors I had in the English dept, amd even my theatre professors, used many of the standard editing symbols. They circled things and made notes too, but I had a lot of symbols on my papers. Had I not known what they meant, I would have had a hard time revising my work.

 

I don't know what symbols are taught in R&S, I don't have those levels, but symbols I saw and used were the paragraph symbol (p with double line on side), double underline for capitalize, and the curved line for reversing words it phrases. Those were used all the time by my professors, there may have been others, but it has been a while ;)

 

Important to drill....maybe not, important to at least know what they are...yes.

 

 

:iagree: Some of the symbols are even used on "papers" graded online and the student should know what they mean.

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I was wondering that too as my ds is working through R&S with the editing sheets. Some of the editing symbols I don't have a problem with. However, my biggest pet peeve is having to insert this mark ^ and then adding in your punctuation or missing letter. Honestly, the paper was so darned clutter with all of the little ^ . I told my son to leave them out and just write in whatever was missing. I understand it if it's a phrase or a sentence. You need a pointer to show exactly where it's to go. But if you're missing a comma, just put in the silly comma and be done with it.

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I don't know what symbols are taught in R&S, I don't have those levels, but symbols I saw and used were the paragraph symbol (p with double line on side), double underline for capitalize, and the curved line for reversing words it phrases. Those were used all the time by my professors, there may have been others, but it has been a while ;)

 

Also the # for a space and ^ for insert.

 

I've been able to get part-time jobs as a proofreader, so I do view knowing the symbols and being able to use them as useful. It opened a couple of doors for me.

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I replied in the other post, but I'll just copy my reply over here:

 

I don't think the "official" editing marks are necessary to learn, unless you want to be a professional editor at a publisher's.

My husband is a scientist and has to publish papers all the time, often in collaboration with other scientists or graduate students. He edits, they edit, editing is going on back and forth a LOT. Nobody in that community uses the formal symbols - but papers get edited just fine.

I am not sure how much editing is done on paper nowadays anyway. When we have collaborative projects that involve text, you just get sent the file, and you input your comments and corrections right into the file in a different color.

I see editing marks as something that will soon go the way of the typewriter.

 

we use Microsoft Word with its review function for writing and editing study guides, test questions, and answer key explanations.

 

It might be handy to know some of the most often used traditional proofing symbols when dealing with hard copy work. In any case, the student could easily look up unfamiliar proofreaders' marks. (They are in my dictionary, for example.)

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I don't think the "official" editing marks are necessary to learn, unless you want to be a professional editor at a publisher's.

My husband is a scientist and has to publish papers all the time, often in collaboration with other scientists or graduate students. He edits, they edit, editing is going on back and forth a LOT. Nobody in that community uses the formal symbols - but papers get edited just fine.

I am not sure how much editing is done on paper nowadays anyway. When we have collaborative projects that involve text, you just get sent the file, and you input your comments and corrections right into the file in a different color.

I see editing marks as something that will soon go the way of the typewriter.

 

Thank you.

 

I don't know that it is necessary to use them all the time, but I think a student should be familiar with them if they plan to attend college. Any professors I had in the English dept, amd even my theatre professors, used many of the standard editing symbols. They circled things and made notes too, but I had a lot of symbols on my papers. Had I not known what they meant, I would have had a hard time revising my work.

 

I don't know what symbols are taught in R&S, I don't have those levels, but symbols I saw and used were the paragraph symbol (p with double line on side), double underline for capitalize, and the curved line for reversing words it phrases. Those were used all the time by my professors, there may have been others, but it has been a while ;)

 

Important to drill....maybe not, important to at least know what they are...yes.

 

I guess I can see that familiarity would be beneficial. I'm just not sure about actually going through the lessons to mark up papers.

 

I was wondering that too as my ds is working through R&S with the editing sheets. Some of the editing symbols I don't have a problem with. However, my biggest pet peeve is having to insert this mark ^ and then adding in your punctuation or missing letter. Honestly, the paper was so darned clutter with all of the little ^ . I told my son to leave them out and just write in whatever was missing. I understand it if it's a phrase or a sentence. You need a pointer to show exactly where it's to go. But if you're missing a comma, just put in the silly comma and be done with it.

 

Exactly the type of thing I was thinking! And, I would rather my kids figure out that there needs to be a comma, instead of me inserting it with the red pen so that they can mindlessly fix it on the word processor.

 

Also the # for a space and ^ for insert.

 

I've been able to get part-time jobs as a proofreader, so I do view knowing the symbols and being able to use them as useful. It opened a couple of doors for me.

 

Hm...so another of many skills out in the world that could open doors for people. Thanks for that perspective!

 

we use Microsoft Word with its review function for writing and editing study guides, test questions, and answer key explanations.

 

It might be handy to know some of the most often used traditional proofing symbols when dealing with hard copy work. In any case, the student could easily look up unfamiliar proofreaders' marks. (They are in my dictionary, for example.)

 

Ah, this is comforting - I never thought about looking them up in the dictionary. This makes me think there are many more than are even in the R&S book - because when I looked carefully this morning, there weren't very many in there!

 

Maybe we will do quick skims of those lessons, but not spend lots of time marking up the samples in the lessons.

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I replied in the other post, but I'll just copy my reply over here:

 

I don't think the "official" editing marks are necessary to learn, unless you want to be a professional editor at a publisher's.

My husband is a scientist and has to publish papers all the time, often in collaboration with other scientists or graduate students. He edits, they edit, editing is going on back and forth a LOT. Nobody in that community uses the formal symbols - but papers get edited just fine.

I am not sure how much editing is done on paper nowadays anyway. When we have collaborative projects that involve text, you just get sent the file, and you input your comments and corrections right into the file in a different color.

I see editing marks as something that will soon go the way of the typewriter.

 

:iagree:

 

I had English profs who did not use them so I suspect its individual in usage and maybe to a certain campus or department.

 

If they know they exist and know how to find a sheet that tells them what they are, that is enough.

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