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jenn_unpluggedI despise reading over copy-edited text, because I invariably disagree with the choices the copy-editor made regarding punctuation. Here are two examples from the first page of my chapter:
"Mathematics educators and mathematicians have recently begun to reconsider the university mathematics preparation of teachers, paying careful attention to the development of knowledge of mathematics for teaching; an understanding of the underlying processes and structures of concepts, relationships between different areas of mathematics, and knowledge of students' ways of thinking and mathematical backgrounds."
They replaced the colon I put there with that red semi-colon, but that doesn't make sense because the text after the semi-colon cannot stand on its own. That text is intended to be a definition of the term "knowledge of mathematics for teaching". WTF?
Here's another: "It may be that carefully guided experiences in novel and unfamiliar contexts such as those afforded by elementary number theory, can help pre-service teachers develop a more sophisticated mathematical perspective, as well as a deeper understanding of the mathematics they will be teaching."
The red comma was added, which makes no sense. It either needs to be deleted or a matching comma should be added at the beginning of the "marked off" text, after the word "contexts".
It makes me look like a bad writer when they insist on using incorrect punctuation, you know?
*headdesk*
ETA: I just noticed that the header on the odd pages reads "11. RIVISITING ALGEBRA" instead of Revisiting Algebra. OMG, who are these people?
ETA 2: On the other hand, I wrote crap like this: "When the class was working on a problem, about half of the students were typically listening intently, offering suggestions, while the other half, bent over their notebooks and calculators, worked on the problem on their own." *winces* Comma happy, Jenn?
"Mathematics educators and mathematicians have recently begun to reconsider the university mathematics preparation of teachers, paying careful attention to the development of knowledge of mathematics for teaching; an understanding of the underlying processes and structures of concepts, relationships between different areas of mathematics, and knowledge of students' ways of thinking and mathematical backgrounds."
They replaced the colon I put there with that red semi-colon, but that doesn't make sense because the text after the semi-colon cannot stand on its own. That text is intended to be a definition of the term "knowledge of mathematics for teaching". WTF?
Here's another: "It may be that carefully guided experiences in novel and unfamiliar contexts such as those afforded by elementary number theory, can help pre-service teachers develop a more sophisticated mathematical perspective, as well as a deeper understanding of the mathematics they will be teaching."
The red comma was added, which makes no sense. It either needs to be deleted or a matching comma should be added at the beginning of the "marked off" text, after the word "contexts".
It makes me look like a bad writer when they insist on using incorrect punctuation, you know?
*headdesk*
ETA: I just noticed that the header on the odd pages reads "11. RIVISITING ALGEBRA" instead of Revisiting Algebra. OMG, who are these people?
ETA 2: On the other hand, I wrote crap like this: "When the class was working on a problem, about half of the students were typically listening intently, offering suggestions, while the other half, bent over their notebooks and calculators, worked on the problem on their own." *winces* Comma happy, Jenn?
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-23 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-23 09:12 pm (UTC)I'm going to pull out both Truss and Strunk & White so that I can cite page numbers back to the copy editors. *gnashes teeth*
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Date: 2006-01-23 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-23 09:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-23 09:47 pm (UTC)The comma distorts your sentence.
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Date: 2006-01-23 09:52 pm (UTC)Use a colon after an independent clause to introduce a list of particulars, an appositive, an amplification, or an illustrative quotation. A colon tells the reader that what follows is closely related to the preceding clause. The colon has more effect than the comma, less power to separate than the semicolon, and more formality than the dash. It usually follows an independent clause and should not separate a verb from its complement or a preposition from its object.
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Date: 2006-01-23 10:07 pm (UTC)And Jenn -- poor dear. You should see all the convoluted grammar and creative punctuation in my worship resource books.
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Date: 2006-01-23 10:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-23 11:37 pm (UTC)Bah! I read this, and I was like, "What's wrong with that?" I will never learn!
As for all the other copy editing drama, I wouldn't stress too badly about how your grammar skillz come off. Nine out of ten people STILL don't know how to properly use a semi-colon. They are the least important of the puncuation family, and Papa Period should have done us all a favor and left the semi-colon out in the cold as soon as he laid eyes on it.
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Date: 2006-01-24 04:34 am (UTC)And yeah, you're right. No one will notice but me, probably. But still...
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Date: 2006-04-13 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 04:19 pm (UTC)