Thursday, September 12, 2013

Pre-tech frenzy

This is  crazy.

Today was  dedicated to the final proofreading  of the thesis before it  gets under the  tech review -   ugh.   Just hope it will survive the onslaught.

Had trouble with my  printer /sour face/, but  it was all well in the end, even if  I will probably   have to print elsewhere if the colors  don't stabilize  - I have some kind of  watered down ones, probably because it  was -  probably  -  in the toner-saver mode.  Too damn  lazy to check it right now, but I am  a very happy camper that at least black  color  is  doing well, because otherwise  the entire document would have gone  to  hell.  I also  got the   permission for my  thesis' theme -  yippee -  even if it is  a little later,  but  honestly the  chapters  eluded me  something  fierce /grumbles/.   We have to giver the  disposition into the reading to out mentor and  chief of  our cathedra,   first,  and this is   can  tear  nerves, because there is checking, re-checking and checking again.  /grumpy/. 

I thank all the gods and angels  for   having a good CD  burner program, because  it  saved me  much time with  burning the entire  thing to CD /sweatdrops/.    It's   duplicate  now, and  when it  will be  the defense, it will be triplicate.   Meaning,   the whoppin' 360 pages, and I shudder to think  about the duplicating the  entire thing when the  defense will be over  and done with.  Papirology  of hell.   I just hope   they will be merciful and absolve the poor shmucks of  the  students of it somehow -   we have  hand tablets for reason, for Pete's  sake.  /growls/.   Would it be too  hard for the  school to buy some three of  six hand tablets  as for using them for this purpose?

Right, right,  rant over.   Cross the fingers  the things  tomorrow will   be well.

Signing off,

Eirenei

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Proofreading Ad(Vices) Times 10

Urrgh.  /groans/. 

If there was ever a day when I felt like a  zombie  slash roadkill  it is this one.  Mandatory visit to the doc,  getting the proofreading paid -  yes,  despite of my nitpicking  I am human  who still has  his   own works to  get checked  if  he wants to  graduate -  it's  some kind of a prerequisite, and boy,  I am glad I did. However,  no one  warns the  idiots who write their thesis that they have to  squirrel away  some   cash to  pay the  proofreader with.  Some prices I've  met in the business  nearly gave me a heart attack, and not in a good sense.  Got a  very good proofreader -  my native tongue  can  be absolute bitch  at times, and even if I  am  fairly literate, I was still  gawping at the amount of mistakes made in the document I've sent to  proofreader. /Twitch/. But  with the amount of   written material it was only too easy to lose  the red  strand of  writing  properly, even if in only  small things like  commas and whatnot.  /glares at the  offending things briefly/.  I am very satisfied with  Alexa's  work -  she is professional and blitzingly fast, when you give her enough time -   I gave her  six days, and  she finished  in four, which is  a  very good time,  considering she had to get through  nearly 120 pages of  techno-babble  and a half. Which means  30  pages per day, and considering  the work requirements, she did  fantastic.

Tips when you  search for  a proofreader:

1) Don't over blow your  thesis.  Really, don't.  The more you  write, the more it will need to be proofread, and the more you will have to pay.  Be short and sweet, but still write enough to appease your mentor.   If you know what  you are talking about, and you  have a good mentor, it's possible to whittle  down some pages  from the required amount.

2) Ask around.  Meaning, ask  your  colleagues and if possible, the  ones who had  already  done their thesis works. Good  recommendation can  save  you one  heck of a lot of  gray hair. However,  a warning -  look around for a proofreader  before  you actually need   him or her, because looking   for them  last minute can result in gray hair,  higher  prices and if you are really unlucky a shoddily  done work from proofreader's  side, becasue  they   just had to  catch the  unreasonable deadline you decided you wanted  your work  back.   it's good if  you begin  to ask  before the beginning of the last year of your study course.

3)  Credentials. It's your decision if you will give  your  work into  proofreading  a person or  company who does this professionally  - but  no matter which one you  take your shine and consequently work to,  always  check  if they have their  credentials.   The persons employed  have to be professors in the  language you write in  -  be that your  mother tongue or any other,  or   professional, credited  proofreaders, and ideally, have some  years of   doing  this  kind of  shtick under their belts.  There's also  a matter of  colleges or universities demanding  a  professional  proofreading, and  believe me, it's  within reason. Unlicensed  proofreaders  are rarely  up to the par to the  work  your  thesis  will put them through, and if you  want  a job to be done well,  check and then choose a professional  you trust  them to  do it  well.  

4) Offers  sifting.  You asked  around  for  proofreaders,  sent them your document and you received -  offers  for  the job to be done on your  precious baby of a thesis. This is like  getting a car to the repair -  every mechanic  states the price and then you  consider pros and cons.  However, the offers are just that -  offers. You are not obliged to pay for anything  until  you  decide  to  really  do your document into proofreading to  one or other  person or company.  Take your time,  consider benefits and drawbacks and find the  balance you are  happy with.

5)Deadline.  The  dreaded  D word.  Make sure  you give your proofreader  enough time to  do  your monster right. /Ahem./  That means you will  have to consider the  deadline you have  and the deadline  to which  your  proofreader can finish  checking your work.   So no  last-minute  deadlines -  try to give the proofreader at least  one to two days of additional time in the whole  deadline deal -  for example,  you  have  a thesis  with 60 pages, document only. The  proofreader  can  do some 15 pages, 20 if  they are pressed, per day, but let's  go with 15.   This means 4 days of work,  you add one more day for reserve -  so your  deadline  is 5 days  total, so  you  will say  5 days and proofreader  will  try to stick with that.  The longer the document is, and  if you  want your proofreader to  edit  document,  you will have to  add more  time to get the work done.   
 

6) Additional  services.   Nowadays proofreaders  also  offer   checking the sources, citing,  editing  the document by standards  of your college or university and so on and so forth.   You can get that price down if you  do those things yourself -  and you  will also learn something,  thought  sometimes  Word   can be pretty  stubborn, but  hey,  just Ask Uncle Google.   Saves a pretty penny too, even if  you will find yourself   sometimes frustrated  over  one  little thing or another.  But if you do decide  for  additional services,  there applies the same rule  as  with price haggling -   get the  final price confirmed in writing, with all the additional  services accounted for.

7)  Downsizing. Yes, you read it right.  There's  no  need to  send  absolutely entire document into checking, as it also amps up the final price.  Just send the document that needs to be checked, without  any  tables of content and  anything else. For example, you have  85 pages, and   if you send only  document,  it cuts it down on 64. Pretty sweet, no?

8) Price haggling. Usually,  the  prices are already fixed,  but  if you choose  a  proofreader -  instead of company -  you can still  haggle the price.  Be prepared to barter.  Yes, the entire  experience is terrifying at first, but if you do your document  well, with minimal  grammatical errors and  give  your  proofreader  enough time  to check it over,   the price you two  can come up with can be pretty  reasonable. However, a warning - agree to the price  before  giving the  document into  proofreading, both  sides, so there won't be any misunderstanding about payment later.  The written confirmation is the best, because it counts  as a contract.

9) Checking  the  works.  This is the time  that  warms the cockles of your heart. Or it should have been, at any rate.   Before  you pay the piper, check the piper's work.   Do make an agreement that the  proofreader send you a part of the document  upon the finishing  the  proofreading so you can check over their  work.  Better to be safe than sorry, and if there are any misunderstandings, that they are  solved before  concluding the  transaction -  i.e. putting  the money in their hands.

10)  Do your job.   You got the  proofread document back,  so what now?  Get through the  whole  thing  and check the changes, and  either reject or accept them.  Yes, it is  a dull job, but it's the only one  that really guarantees   your   thesis or research  work will  be  worth both of the time and  money you  put it in.

Whew.  I think I completely railroaded from my intentional  theme, but oh well.  What did I  want to  write  about already? /confused/

Well,  hopefully  this  little tidbit  will be useful for anyone  reading it.

Signing off,

Eirenei