Showing posts with label proofreading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label proofreading. Show all posts

Sunday, December 16, 2007

The origin of proofreading

Pythagoras is wrestling with his theorem of ultimate reality. A bright young assistant offers his services as “proofreader”.

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Assistant: Can I proofread it for you, Master?

Pythagoras: Well, you could pick up the obvious stuff like spelling errors, grammar errors, leaps of logic, inconsistencies in style and presentation.

Assistant: I can do all that.

Pythagoras: But can you see inside my head? The things I really should add. Or, the things I don’t think I want left in the text?

Assistant: Both of us should work on it. You’ll miss what the reader will see and I’ll miss what you think the reader should see.

Pythagoras: OK. Bring me the red pens, the blue pens, the white correcting fluid, and a couple of rulers. Let the reading of the proof, the "perfect" number, 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10, hereby begin.
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