Mastering the Basics
Gaining clarity on the principles of writing and editing
Mastering the rules: a catchwords/context approach
Course details
Suggested timeline: 13–24 months into editing
Total time: Approx. 20 hours
Course description
Once the structure of sentences is understood, one can work on the specifics within them. This will require a mastery of the principal rules of writing discussed in the basic course. The present course provides a practical and powerful method for mastering the principal rules of writing. The approach is indicated below.
- A variety of catchwords—catchwords are words that you simply catch hold of and examine!—are provided for many of the rules, and ways of analyzing them are also explained (with examples)
- Another method of mastering the rules is to understand the context in which a given rule is considered
- Over 50 catchwords and 250 contexts are discussed to help you master the principal rules of writing (which you will apply as an editor)
Armed with the analytical capabilities learned from this course, you will be able to dissect any sentence in the English language.
Mastering the rules: ways of indicating syntax
Course details
Suggested timeline: 13–24 months into editing
Total time: Approx. 20 hours
Course description
Once the structure of sentences in understood, one can work on the specifics within them. This will require a mastery of the principal rules of writing discussed in the basic course. The present course provides a practical and powerful method for mastering the various ways of indicating syntax (relationship) between the different components of a sentence.
You will learn to compare and contrast the following: serial commas vs. serial semicolons (with and without inline lists), parentheses vs. parenthetic commas vs. a pair of dashes, semicolon vs. colon vs. dash—in short, you will have a thorough understanding of the use, subtlety, and power of individual punctuation marks.
Armed with the analytical capabilities learned from this course, you will be able to write or edit sentences in the best possible way.
Mastering sentence patterns: number of subjects, number of actions, and the restrictive/nonrestrictive conundrum
Course details
Suggested timeline: 13–24 months into editing
Total time: Approx. 21 hours
Course description
Language editing is tough. And scholarly academic manuscripts are loaded with so much of technical jargon that it can be quite intimidating for a beginner who has no research experience whatsoever. To understand complex sentences and edit them to a certain level of standard requires a lot of time and effort—almost relentless effort I would say. It takes quite some time for a person to get a grip on the basics of what one is doing.
A good editor will be able to skim read quickly. Skim reading is the ability to get the gist of what is discussed in (say) a section made up of many paragraphs. Once this is known, line-by-line editing becomes easier, as the editor knows what to expect. But to know how to skim read, an editor must have mastered sentence structure and patterns. (The editor finds out the subject and action of every sentence quickly and thus gets to know the essence of these sentences.) Intertwined with this challenge is the play of restrictive and nonrestrictive elements—undoubtedly a difficult part to master. But it is equally true that without mastering the concept of restrictive and nonrestrictive elements one may never read sentences correctly nor establish oneself as an editor.
The present course will introduce the copyeditor to two sets of sentence patterns:
- The first set of sentence patterns relates to the number of subjects and the number of associated actions in any given sentence
- Ten base patterns and 32 subpatterns will be outlined, and each of these will be discussed using 2–5 examples
- The second set of sentence patterns relates to restrictive and nonrestrictive elements
- Six base patterns and 20 subpatterns will be outlined, and each of these will be discussed using 2–5 examples
The concept of sentence patterns is based on the logical principle that sentence structure is independent and that punctuation can help strengthen sentence structure. Each of these patterns is associated with a specific punctuation pattern (or lack of it), and a clear understanding of these patterns will help an editor to not only grasp the gist of sentences but also correct their punctuation as appropriate.
Introduction to word usage: common issues in scholarly manuscripts
Course details
Suggested timeline: 13–24 months into editing
Total time: Approx. 15 hours
Course description
When sentence structure, grammar, and syntax have been understood, what is left in sentences will be only usage-related issues, and this course opens a window on this vast area of writing/editing.
Common issues observed in scholarly manuscripts will be discussed in detail. The following is a list of word categories that will be discussed:
- Words that may be checked routinely
- Words often associated with incorrect expressions
- Words and word pairs whose usage is often unclear
- Quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns
- Words considered as belonging to Old English
- Words whose meanings are often not clearly understood
- Words considered jargon (for simpler words that may work well)
- Words most frequently misused in scientific writing
- Words considered informal or inappropriate in scientific writing
- Words whose usage may be specified
- Words considered euphemistic
- Words that may be incorrect for the context or discussion
It will also let you know some of the other areas that you can probe into, once you are thorough with the points discussed here.
