DEAR Capital Kiwi, re proofing and editing :
You are doing just great!
Once upon a time there were proofreaders by the dozens, perched in a mezzanine above the Linotype room, and they read the copy after it had been set in type, correcting spelling and grammar and thereby teaching the readers and the reporters who read their own stories in the paper. They were good teachers those proofreaders.
Then came computers.
Goodbye proofreading as a full time job and accepted part of the publishing process. In came "spellcheck" which is not grammarcheck. For example : It would read "of" as acceptable when the context called for "off!" Or cellar for seller etc. etc. Things that never, ever, would have gotten by a proofreader.
Proofreaders had dozens and dozens of reference books and they actually used them!
As opposed to a this : a news editor who came across the word perquisites in a quote of a town official, in a news story said to me "You must learn to spell 'prerequisites'." When I exploded she wanted to change the word... IN A DIRECT QUOTE ... because she'd "never heard of it." Arrggghhh ! The Editor overruled her, thank Gawd.
Another time, in a story about intricate quilt patterns a typographer changed "busyness" to "business without checking with me ... and I was three feet away. How could it not be obvious by the story itself! Double Arrgggh.
And while I am blowing off steam, it is Linotype, not linotype. Linotype is a proprietary word, please!
RANT! RANT! RANT !
Well, calming down a bit I have to back off blaming computers....totally .... it was, in large part, that blasted Corporate-think that ended up firing proofreaders and turning writer/authors into their own proofers.... Corporate spent all that money on computers and, by Gawd, computers can do the job! Lean and mean. And there are several meanings in mean.
I am going to go into a corner, curl up in a foetal position, chew on paper and mutter to myself, thereby saving you all from any more. (We need a cross-eyed, drooling emoticon)
Thank you for allowing me to vent my frustrations.
wow