LIZ PURCELL

To be considered a great public speaker, you need to start from the beginning: crafting an engaging speech. The task may seem daunting but by breaking it down into small parts, even the most reluctant writer can create an interesting and impressive speech. Some speakers utilize the services of speech writers to ensure the quality of their material; their expertise lies within the delivery of the speech. However, many of us cannot afford that luxury and need to write our own. Follow the following 5 Tips for Writing a Public Speech to get started

1. Choose a Topic You Care About: The easiest speech to write is one for which you already know and understand the topic. Writing a speech, and then delivering on a topic that doesn’t interest you will also likely disinterest your audience. Write about something that interests you, or better, one that you feel passionate about. If you have been assigned a topic, you need to decide what it is that makes you care about that topic and then write about it so that your audience will want to hear about it.
2. Know Your Audience: Think about the make-up of the audience that will be listening to your speech. There’s a difference in how you interact with your professional and social peers; delivering a public speech follows the similar difference in expectation. Age, education and venue are other factors to consider. You want to speak to your audience in an engaging manner, so you must be sure that you are communicating to them in familiar terms.
3. Combat Writers’ Block by Starting with a Bullet List: A list of general ideas does not need to have perfect formatting, nor even be typed on a computer. You can write this on the back of a lunch napkin, for all it matters! What does matter is that you have ideas that are relating to or are sub-categories of your main topic/title. If you haven’t gotten that far, write down topic ideas, then take those titles and write a list of ideas. Once you have something in writing in front of you, the task will not feel so large.
4. Start Writing for Each Point: Once you have 4-5 ideas written down, pick the one that immediately jumps out at you and start writing. Don’t worry about sentence structure, perfect wording or order. You’ll have time later to edit, right now you simply want to write. As you write you will likely find yourself swerving towards a line of thought and ideas that hadn’t been forthcoming in step 3 are suddenly filling your head. Go with it! It’s always easier to remove content and edit for too much length than it is to add more.
5. Edit & Proofread: Read the written draft once, fixing mistakes, wording and sentence problems. You may want to remove entire sections, change their order or add more to a section in order to complete a thought. Then, read it aloud and repeat. Words that appear great on paper often do not “hear” as well to your audience. I recommend repetition of this step at least 3 times. Feel like you’re missing something? Have someone else read the draft to ensure you’re not lulled into a rhythm that causes you to miss important or difficult.

You have your material, now you need to practice it a few times, making only minor changes for rhythm. You have done the hard work; you have written the speech. Now all that’s left is to deliver your topic in a sincere and engaging manner. Congratulations!

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Source by Crystal Coleman

In the January, 2006 issue of Intellectual Property Today, attorneys Thomas J. Van Gilder and Carl A. Kukkonen cited to a document on the webpage of the United States Patent and Trademark Office [USPTO] for the proposition that “patent filings have grown from 353,394 to 406,302, an increase of nearly 15%, from FY 2002 to FY 2005.” In footnote 3 of their article, they carefully provided the page number of the document and the link to the document: See USPTO 2005 Annual Report at 61, http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/annual/2005/2005annualreport.pdf.

The interesting, and troubling, aspect about this is that one will not find in the cited document at the given link the number “406,302”.

The number 406,302 did not arise out of thin air. Intellectual Property Today had mentioned the number in its December 2005 issue: The agency received 406,302 patent applications, and

323,501 applications for trademark registration as reported in its fiscal year 2005 Performance and Accountability Report released in November. The magazine eWeek had mentioned the number on January 16, 2006: Last year, the USPTO granted 165,485 patents, up from 99,000 in 1990. According to the patent office, a record 406,302 new applications were filed

last year alone. On January 25, 2006, Bruce V. Bigelow of the San Diego Union-Tribune used it: In November, the patent office said it issued 165,485 patents in the fiscal year that ended in September — and had received 406,302 patent applications, along with 323,501 applications for trademark registration. Andy Holloway of Canadian Business used the number on January 30, 2006: It’s easy to see why the patent office is swamped. It received 406,302 patent applications

and granted 165,485 of them last year, adding to a database of patents that numbers roughly seven million. On February 20, 2006, Dan O’Shea had used the number in Telephony: During 2005, the agency received 406,302 patent applications and 323,501 applications for trademark registration, according to the agency’s Web site.

As of April 23, 2006, one will find at page 61 of the above-identified link a table stating that there were 409,532 filings in FY 2005. One will not find an explanation of why the previous number of 406,302 is gone. Data that exist only on an internet website can be changed, without explanation, and thus cease to exist. In this particular instance, we have evidence of the previous information, because so many people cited to it. However, a person looking only to footnote 3 of the article by Van Gilder and Kukkonen, and following the link to page 61 might be led to the conclusion that Van Gilder and Kukkonen “got it wrong.”

In fact, the “error” of Van Gilder and Kukkonen would have been referring to a link to a site that was capable of changing the numbers. Those authors who cite to internet websites for numerical data should be aware that such citation may be perilous in the sense that it is not permanent. The situation presents an interesting issue in the way law review cite checking works. If a law review author utilized the 406,302 number and cited to Van Gilder and Kukkonen, the cite would be approved. However, if a law review author utilized the 406,302 number and cited the USPTO document, the cite should NOT be approved.

In this particular case, there is a secondary sustantive issue as to patent law. The figure of 409,532 (or the previous figure of 406,302) comprises the combination of utility patent applications AND design patent applications. Typically, in such things as the debate on how high the patent grant rate is, one looks only at utility applications. Taking the previous data as presented, one would find a grant rate of 165,485/406,302 = 40.7%, minuscule in comparison to the 97% number once alleged by Quillen and Webster, or the 85% number accepted by Lemley and Moore in the article “Ending Abuse of Patent Continuations.”

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Source by Lawrence Ebert

In America, poets are held in such low esteem that even the most Honored Representative from Nigeria won’t bother scamming us. Society says to us what Dermot Mulroney says to Julia Roberts in “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” that we are “The pus that infects the mucus that cruds up the fungus that feeds on the pond scum.”

Even being cheated by Mr. Honorable Minister, however, is preferable to the poetry scams that have proliferated. Wind Publications’ Literary Scam guide has this to say:

Hidden among the many sponsors of legitimate literary contests advertised on the internet lurk those who care little about literature, its audience, or authors. These organizations and individuals exist solely for profit through their so-called writing or poetry contests. Often you’ll find these “free” poetry contests lavishly advertised in your local newspaper.

There is a cottage industry of writing scams perpetuated by pus poetry pimps, the chief among them International Library of Poetry, aka Noble House Press, aka Poetry.com. They advertise in USA Weekend and the Penny Saver–well, not the Penny Saver, but they might as well, because that sums up their opinion of poets. If you’ve seen the ads or received a letter that says, “Congratulations, your poem has been selected for our next anthology,” congratulations, you’re being scammed.

Like so-called modeling agencies or “talent agents” who prey on the dreams of nubile girls wanting to be the next Lindsay Lohan, poetry pyramid schemes exploit the number one hope of writers: publication, and more importantly, recognition. Many excellent Web sites such as Preditors and Editors and PoetryNotCom detail the outrageous mechanics of poetry “anthology” scams, and the infamous Wergle Flomp Poetry Contest by WinningWriters.com cheerfully skewers vanity poetry contests and the submicroorganisms who perpetuate them.

How do you spot a poetry scam? Look for…

1. Insane pie in the sky prize amounts.

I ran the DeAnn Lubell Professional Writers’ Competition. Most poetry contests with reading fees pay, at most, $1,000, and that’s for a book-length manuscript of poetry. For a single poem, the first prize pot is usually a whopping $100, $150 tops. A $20 million prize, as dangled by Noble House, is a big crimson flag. Oh, and no one ever offers poets a chance to win a world cruise. It’s usually assumed that we sail around the world on a Mark Twain raft, a sampan, or a Hemingway skiff.

2. No contest fees.

Wergle Flomp is the only “F*r*e*e” poetry contest. Now, people on the Internet and toiling poets naturally leap at the word “F*r*e*e”. But, like victims of those modeling scams, you’ll end up paying for your moment of bargain hunting. Modeling scams want you to work with a particular photographer (usually fake European). Likewise, poetry scams won’t let you even see your poem in print unless you pay for the anthology. When you do pay for the anthology, you may wonder if you just bought a copy of the Penny Saver, because your poem looks like it was crammed onto the page to make room for the “Spot the Difference” puzzle and the adult talk lines. Then there are those awards banquets…

3. Phony awards banquets.

Ten years ago, no joke, I received a mailing from Famous Poets Society that lured me to fork over the cash to attend an awards banquet and convention. If I paid my money, I could join the elite company of poets such as…Ted Lange of “Love Boat” fame. Who knew Isaac the bartender was a closet Langston Hughes? Plus, I could win $6,000 in door prizes. Now, if you’ve ever attended a poetry reading, especially in coffeehouses, you know that poets wear their vow of poverty as proudly as a Che Guevara T-shirt. Just the thought of winning $25 in a poetry slam made my fellow poets and me weep more cathartically than the contestants on “Deal or No Deal.” And Ted Lange usually doesn’t attend.

4. Questionable reputation or none at all.

In poetry, if you don’t have Nikki Giovanni, Czeslaw Milosz or Donald Hall front and center in your magazine, plus several angsty Eastern European poets, would-be poets drop you like Oprah dropped James Frey. Look for magazines, publishers and poetry contests that publish and are judged by literary lions. It’s Bukowski or bust. And when Poetry.com can’t figure out that Dave Barry and 20/20 are hoaxing them, the joke’s on Poetry.com. Similarly, if a vanity press charges you $3,000 to $8,000 to publish your collection of poems, and the top author promoted by Façade Press is an eighteen-year-old writing poems from the point of view of her liver, save your money for the hard work of actually submitting your poems to Threepenny Review, or literary magazines or publishers that you read about in Writer’s Market or Poets and Writers.

5. Advertising in newspapers and glossy magazines.

Real poetry contests don’t advertise in USA Weekend–sure, USA Weekend may sponsor a teen essay contest, but poetry advertisers? Forget it. People don’t pick up USA Weekend as a literary publication, even though USA Weekend features books and authors. If you see a mass call for poets in a mass market magazine, give it a miss. Real poetry contests get deluged with submissions as it is. They don’t need to fish for more.

6. Sending you a letter of acceptance for a contest you can’t remember entering or a publisher you can’t remember submitting to.

I admit, as a writer I have difficulty keeping track of what I sent to whom and when–we go into writing to avoid paperwork, not do it, although when we’re not in the mood, reorganizing files suddenly becomes as tempting as a day in Cancun. Fortunately, Writer’s Market features a Submission Tracker, and some enterprising bloggers actually post their submission schedule to make the rest of us sigh in unorganized envy. If you can’t find the cover letter/e-query in your file cabinet, on your computer, on your Zip drive (you do back up, right?), or in your Sent folder, chances are you never submitted to National Library of Poetry or Wordscum.com (apologies if there actually is a Web site out there called Wordscum.com). Yes, after 300 rejections, getting an acceptance letter may be a boost, but to misquote Groucho Marx, think twice before you accept just any club that will have you as a member. Aim higher. Imagine if JK Rowling had just said, “All right, I’ll pay a million pounds to have a few hundred copies of Harry Potter for my friends and relatives to buy.”

7. Promising to get your book or handsome anthology on the bestseller rack in bookstores.

Number one, PoetryNotCom is one of the many sites reporting that this claim is bogus. Number two, most people who go into a bookstore to read poetry probably can find the poetry section blindfolded and spend three hours debating the symbolism in Whitman over a decaf skinny latte at Borders Café. Number two, although getting your book in bookstores is still the gold standard, Amazon.com and online retailing make it easy for even the tiniest press to get books noticed. Number three, bookstores are so glutted with inventory that they can’t even stock the POD books, let alone anything from ScamPoet Publishing or Poetry.com, and bookstores will not accept vanity press books. For that matter, no poet besides Ludacris or Jimmy Carter will end up on the bestseller list in a bookstore. We don’t go into poetry to be rich. We go into poetry to sound our barbaric yawp…and a fellowship or two is nice, too.

Many beginning poets get bilked, but you don’t have to. If you’re smart and ambitious, you’ll be a successful poet with tons of lierary magazines and e-zines bearing your byline. Poetry.com and its ilk will always be “The pus that infects the mucus that cruds up the fungus that feeds on the pond scum.”

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Source by Kristin Johnson

Point of view one is of the fiction writer’s most powerful techniques. Writing from your character’s POV means that you get inside the main character’s head, heart and gut –literally see the world through the character’s perspective. So, for example, when you are in the “bad guy’s” POV, be true to that POV. An excellent example of this is Crime and Punishment where Raskolnikov thrusts an ax into his landlady’s head. Thus begins one of the greatest novel ever written. Did Dostoevsky have to put an ax into anyone’s head to write this? Clearly not. And neither do you. But Dostoevsky needed to experience Raskolnikov’s physical journey as a murderer as well as his emotional journey from darkness to redemption.

William Faulkner wrote: “… the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself… alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the sweat and the agony.”

Faulkner has given us a tough assignment, yet it is an assignment at which we much excel as fiction writers. The best way to succeed at this is to leave behind what you believe to be “true” and open yourself to the vast possibility of life experiences outside your own. For it is not true that we can only write what we experience. As writers, we access the imagination, that cosmic place where everything is possible and the great expanse of human emotions resides.

One of the best ways to experience the power of point of view is to write an emotionally strong scene between two people who, when they tell their story, have very different versions of the experience. For example, write a fight between two people, perhaps a mother and a daughter or a father and a son. A fight has built in tension, which makes the scene easier to write. You also have opportunity to use dialogue – when people fight, they usually have a lot say! Begin by asking yourself what is the issue between the mother and daughter (or father and son, or any two people). First write the scene from the daughter’s point of view. This means you get inside only the daughter’s head. The reader can hear what the mother says and see how she acts, but cannot know her thoughts. This exercise brings you totally inside the daughter. The only inner thoughts you use belong to the daughter.

Then put the daughter’s story aside and write the scene from the mother’s point of view. You need not have the exact same dialogue and almost certainly the story will be very different from the mother’s point of view. This time around, you show the reader only the mother’s inner thoughts. The daughter speaks and acts but we do not know her motivations other than by what she says and does.

This is a great eye opener of an exercise geared to deepening your understanding of the writer’s technique of point of view. It also encourages dialogue. Even if you’ve never written dialogue, give it a try. I’ve worked with a lot of people who think they can’t write dialogue — only because they’ve never tried. The truth is everyone can write dialogue! So can you!

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Makler Heidelberg

Source by Emily Hanlon

Prewriting is one of the most important stages of the writing process, in addition to revision. Unfortunately, many beginning (and some advanced) writers don’t spend enough time on these activities, and so the writing is more difficult than it needs to be.

Prewriting involves all the activities needed to prepare for the first draft, starting with that first flash of a book idea, all the way to a complete outline. The prewriting process (at least as I have experienced it) has several steps, each with a few techniques that make the step easier to get through.

So why not just start typing after that first flash of an idea?

Only in the movies does a writer do that. Remember Chevy Chase in Funny Farm (1988)? He had what he thought was a great idea for a novel. He sat down at the typewriter, typed “Chapter 1” and stared at the typewriter, at a loss for his first sentence. He hadn’t done his prewriting. He finally figured it out and produced (in my view, based on the thickness of the manuscript and his wife’s reaction) a paltry attempt at a novel, more of a novella than anything else.

Chase’s character eventually gives up on the novel and becomes a sports writer. I wonder, as a writer and teacher, whether he gave up because he didn’t understand the writing process, or whether he simply wasn’t cut out as a novelist. He seems happy as a sports writer, so the movie does have a happy ending.

Prewriting is a vital part of the writing process. In approximate sequence within the prewriting process, some of the benefits of prewriting are as follows:

* Prewriting can be a lot of fun. Anything is possible at this point. You have your wonderful book idea, still fuzzy and vague but with great possibilities. Your ideas can be freewheeling, even idiotic. It doesn’t matter. Just keep brainstorming, playing with ideas, collecting resources and notes, doing all the activities needed to finish this stage of the writing process.

The only restriction at this point (unless you place more on yourself) is your need or requirement to stick close to the original vision for the book, but even that restriction is false. Your original idea will rarely match the finished product. I know that’s hard to read, but that’s been my experience. Of course, my books are often better, more complicated than the original idea. The vagueness of the vision allows you to begin work on the idea, so you can create the book you are intended to write.

Detours and weird ideas can often lead to gemstones for your book, whether with the content, organization, or whatever. At this point, your book can go in many directions. Explore them all until you hit upon the one that feels right. “Ah, ha! That’s what I’m going to write.”

2. You can work out the true purpose of the book, playing with alternatives until you find the one that’s right for you and for the reader. What benefits are you looking for as the writer? What benefits are you hoping to give the reader? Make sure your book addresses these purposes.

3. You can find out more about your readers (a.k.a. target market, audience). This exploration is part of your research about your competition. You probably know a lot about them because you were one of them, having been a beginner once yourself. Or you might be aiming at a difference audience, in which case, you’ve got some work to do.

In your exploration of your readers, you can play around with additional audiences you might want to address. Address different age groups, or education levels, or levels of proficiency with the topic. Do you want to write for adults who are beginners in your field, or practitioners? Brainstorm all the possibilities for all these variables. You might find that the alternatives present other book projects you can tackle, once this first book is done. Heck, create an entire industry or franchise out of your book idea, aiming each book at a different audience.

4. You get to plan the book to best meet the needs of your readers. You get to play around with different organizational strategies for the entire book and for each chapter. You get to think about different features for the chapters. You can even play around with cover design.

5. You get to do preliminary research, as much as you need to finish the first draft, or at least as much as you think you need at this point.

If you are passionate about your topic (that’s most important), then doing more reading on the topic should be sheer delight. Remember that eventually you will have to write your own book, so don’t get lost in the research.

Give yourself a time limit for the research, after which you’ll add research questions to your Research Questions List, to be done during revision.

6. You can easily evaluate new ideas that come flooding into your mind (and they will). Does the idea fit your present vision for the book? If you use the idea, will this new idea drastically change the book? Is that change good or bad? If good, where does the idea fit into your present outline or vision for the book?

7. By the end of the process, you’ll have a full outline of the book (if you use my process). With that outline, you’ll be able to see the whole project at a glance. Spread the outline across your desk and examine your creation. With this outline, you’ll be able to detect:

– inadequate organization of the ideas,

– gaps in ideas and content,

– whether you have one book or two

– whether a chapter will become a monster, which needs to be cut down to size right now, before you begin drafting. (This result also happens with drafting, but you’ll deal with that later.)

8. Prewriting allows you to write the first draft more easily because you know what you want to write at each writing session.

9. Prewriting increases your confidence in yourself as a writer and about your book idea. You’ll be able to determine if the project has merit, and if you’ll be able to finish the project and actually write that book.

A Warning

The one warning about prewriting is that you can become so fascinated by this stage (it really is fun), that you don’t actually move past it to create the first draft, and then on to (oh, no) revision. Writers have a tendency to spend too much time here and never leave.

Allow about 25% of your project’s schedule to do prewriting. This is the time that works for me. If you have extensive research to do (which you shouldn’t, at least not for an early book in your career) then allow more time, say 30 to 35% of the time. But then move on and write the first draft.

Prewriting is the first stage of writing for any nonfiction work, an important stage because it allows your time with the rest of the project to be easier than if you’re stumbling around in the dark.

Good luck with your book.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Source by Katherine Ploeger

Online business has emerged as a powerful business tool. This has increased the demand of content writers. The skill and expertise of Indian content writer should be harnessed by the business professionals around the world. There is great demand in outsourcing the work to Indian content writers. The articles written by Indian writers are giving good result with the targeted audience.

The content writing requires a lot more than just writing articles. Indian writers are dedicated in their work on the given field. They undergo a basic research in the respective business before committing the articles. The articles they write contain compassion and allegiance to the business commitment. They are updated in the latest trends in the industry and work par excellence. The vocabulary and the style of trained writers in India are to be worth mentioning.

According to the nature of business the writers can be chosen. The expert writers in the field of interest can be assigned for your work. There will be a consistency in their work and they can surely compete with the quality content writers all around the globe. Geographically specific search engine knowledge will be their additional quality. There was a widespread belief about the grammar mistakes in Indian content writers. This is a false belief as generally even the student community in India is giving more preference to English rather than their regional languages. The expert writers in India have an impeccable hold in the English language. The Indian writers have amazing skill in article editing and they can provide you superior quality work within the stipulated time. The general awareness about the topic of interest and a good command over English language are the main requisite of a writer. The analyzing aptitude of writers in India and the time shift between countries are appealing the people to choose Indian content writers.

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Makler Heidelberg

Source by Jitto Kallarackal Jose

Copy editing involves changes made to a manuscript by the copy editor before it is sent for printing or publishing. What are the five Cs of copy editing? Before I spell them out let me tell that each C represents the job and skills required of any good copy editor. The final edited copy must have the features represented by the Cs. The five Cs are,

• Clear copy
• Correct,
• Concise,
• Comprehensible
• Consistent

Before any manuscript is sent for proofreading the copy editor has to check for many defects in it which may include functions like,

• Punctuation checking
• Spelling checks
• Correcting grammatical mistakes
• Remove semantic errors
• Check all terminologies used
• Check that the publishers “in house” style is being maintained
• Incorporate headers / footers etc
• Ensure there will be no legal problems after publishing
• Summarize or shorten text (abridgement)

A good copywriter must also be a good copy editor and have good command of the language and must also be fairly aware of a wide range of topics with a very strong background in grammar. He must also have an eye for spotting errors and inconsistencies in manuscripts. It is also necessary that he be able to work under pressure and finish work within the given deadline. The growing online publications requires more than just journalistic and language skills. As editors may have to publish articles directly on the Internet, they should be also be good with computers, different word processing programs and must also have the required pagination and technical knowledge/skills.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Source by Ricci Mathew

Gone were the days when self-publishing has been scoffed at because it was believed to be the simpler alternative to an impatient or rejected author who wants to bypass the processes of traditional publishing.

In its place is an era about authors taking charge with what they would often consider their “babies,” “pride and joy,” “glory” and more. Would you think that these authors will undermine the handling of their precious ones? While traditional publishing will limit the authors about their say on certain aspects of their books, independent publishing is a call and commitment to excellence in editorial, cover design and more. For then again, majority of authors are artists and less of business people. Their works are manifestation, often revelation and extension of who they are as individuals. For this impetus, the readers can expect a work of art which goes beyond mediocrity from a real author… a self-published author.

I have recently joined the rostrum of authors who have chosen the independent publishing route. By independent publishing, we can categorize it through print books and electronic books. In this article, I would like to discuss the eBook platform and publishing.

Contrary to what others may think, self-publishing is not a simpler route. In fact, it can be a daunting journey if one focuses on the aspect of being “on your own.” However, it is also a great and rewarding experience. When one has conquered the first step, going up the other levels is like opening a gift encased in different wrappings- coaxing and intriguing one to mystery, joy and fulfillment.

The very first step an indie book author will take when she is ready to publish is to format her manuscript suitable to self-publishing. And here lies the encounter of a caveman who has first been exposed to light. While you thought you have your manuscript ready and polished, you are confronted with seeing in your reader previewer that your baby is no where near being excellent.

Let me then introduce you to your best friend – the best tool you cannot do without when formatting. This little sign in your toolbar that appears like an inverted P which you’ve never even thought will come in handy to you. (This is for authors who use Microsoft Word only.)

Click it and you will begin to see the skeleton of what you have done so far. This is the pilcrow – your best editing buddy for Word. You will see the kind of paragraph, lay-out, fonts, tabs, spacing you have used in your manuscript. The automated platform will not see your manuscript from your viewpoint. But opening the pilcrow will make you see the and help turn your work into an artwork.

Stay tuned for more of these techniques in independent publishing.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Source by Rona Go

Proofreaders often get confused by the term ‘reading against copy’, so in this article I will try to explain what the term means.

There are two ways in which a proofreader may be asked to work: either by reading against copy, or performing a straight (blind) reading.

When she is asked to read against copy, the proofreader will be provided with the author’s original typescript (or a copy of this) with the editor’s corrections marked on it, and a set of proofs produced by the typesetter. The proofreader then compares the proofs with the edited typescript, going through both, word by word, line by line, to ensure that the author’s text (together with any editorial amendments) has been faithfully rendered, with no errors introduced at the typesetting stage.

When performing a straight or blind reading, the proofreader will be supplied with proofs only and not the original typescript. In this case, the proofreader cannot know whether the original typescript has been correctly reproduced along with the editor’s corrections. Her role is simply to check the proofs for content, marking up any clear errors in spelling, punctuation, and so on, that she may find.

When reading against copy, most proofreaders operate by scanning a few words of the original typescript, then checking to see that these appear correctly on the proofs, with any editorial corrections properly implemented. Where there is a difference (if, for example, an apostrophe has been omitted), the proofreader indicates this with the appropriate mark.

For each correction, one mark must be made in the text itself and another in the margin. This is done in order to ensure that, when the typesetter comes to incorporate the proofreader’s corrections, he does not inadvertently skip over any of them.

Errors made by the typesetter must be highlighted with one color pen, mistakes by the author/copy editor with another. This is not in order to apportion blame, but to decide who should pay for the amendments. The standard system of color coding is shown below:

Red: This is used to show mistakes which have been introduced into the text by the typesetter.

Blue: This is used to show errors made by the author and missed by the copy editor, and errors made by the copy editor herself.

(NOTE: some publishers prefer black ink to blue — you will be advised of this when you start working for them).

Green: This color is reserved for the typesetter’s own queries or corrections.

The cost of ‘red’ corrections will be borne by the typesetter, while that of ‘blue’ corrections will be met by the publisher (or, in severe cases, the author). With a straight reading, of course, you will not know whose responsibility any errors might be. In this case, you will mark up all corrections in a single color (usually red).

As a freelance proofreader you are likely to be offered more straight readings than readings against copy. This is because the amended typescript is normally returned to the copy editor for her to check against the proofs. The proofreader’s role is regarded more as providing back-up: a fresh pair of eyes which may spot obvious mistakes overlooked by an editor jaded by over-familiarity. Although the amended typescript could be copied and sent to the proofreader as well, in practice this is often felt by publishers to be too much trouble. This may not be ideal, but it explains why proofreaders are more likely to be asked to perform a straight reading rather than reading against copy.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Source by James Hamilton

Most lists of classic literature will cover poetry, plays and novels by the most famous exponents of these forms. But this classic literature list will look at things slightly differently because it will only consider popular writers who crossed into different forms of writing.

William Shakespeare is perhaps the most famous writer in the English language. He is known as the creator of tragedies like Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet as well as comedies like Much Ado About Nothing and histories like Henry V. But he also wrote poems. Shakespeare’s Sonnets collects 154 poems and is sold across the world.

Edgar Allan Poe is another writer who worked in different literary forms. He is known as a writer of gothic short stories but he was also a novelist and poet. In addition he pioneered the detective genre, which would later be popularized by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Poe’s poetry and short stories can be found collected in one volume and his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, remains in print. All of his work is in the public domain, so different editions by various publishers can be found on book shelves.

As with Poe, James Joyce also published poems and short stories. He is best known for the novels Ulysses and Finnegans Wake but his books Dubliners, which is a collection of 15 short stories, and Exiles, which is his only play, remain popular to this day.

Authors like Stephen King and Agatha Christie are thought to be amongst the best writers within their chosen genre but they also venture outside of their comfort zone to work with different genres and in different forms. King has written various novels, has published many short stories and has written screenplays covering genres as diverse as horror, fantasy and science fiction. His Dark Tower series is one of the best examples of the writer’s diversity as it covers the fantasy, science fiction, horror and western genres.

Agatha Christie is the creator of Hercule Poiret and Miss Marple and is the best selling author of all time. Her books are only outsold by the Bible. She is also a short story writer and playwright.

She’s had great success with her stage plays. The Mouse Trap is perhaps the most popular. It lays claim to the record for the longest continuous theater run. Having opened in 1952, it remains in production at the Ambassadors Theatre to this day.

Immobilienmakler Heidelberg

Makler Heidelberg

Source by Carly Boseo