Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe a noun’s quality or state of being. They’re often called describing words because they provide information about a noun’s appearance, quantity, etc. In English, they’re always placed before the noun:

The old cat is asleep.

The funny men are laughing. 

The big balloon is floating away. 

You can string adjectives together to provide more information about the noun: 

The ugly old cat is asleep. 

The two funny men are laughing. 

The big pink balloon is floating away. 

Adjective Order

When we use more than one adjective to modify a noun, we don’t just put them in a random order. There’s a predictable pattern that adjectives must follow based on their type. 

When you use multiple adjectives, you should almost always place them in this order: 

1. Quantity 
2. Quality
3. Size 
4. Shape 
5. Age 
6. Colour 
7. Nationality 
8. Material 
9. Type or purpose 

To describe a pair of old brown leather boots, you have the adjectives “brown,” “old,” and “leather.” Following the order of adjectives, the correct way to phrase this would be “old (age) brown (colour) leather (material) boots.”

This is why we say “Clifford the big red dog” or “big fat Greek wedding.” If you say “Clifford the red big dog” or “Greek fat big wedding,” it just sounds… wrong. 

Using Adjectives from the Same Group

Punctuating multiple adjectives from different groups (i.e., size, colour, quality) is pretty straightforward – you don’t have to use any. For example, “old” and “brown” are from different adjective groups (age and colour), so they can be used without commas to modify a noun like this: 

There is an old brown tree in the backyard. 

However, when you use two adjectives from the same group (e.g., “smart” and “creative” are both qualities), place either a comma or the word “and” between the adjectives: 

The smart, creative girl won the spelling bee. 

The smart and creative girl won the spelling bee. 

In the rare case that you use three or more adjectives from the same group, write the adjectives with commas between them, and add the word “and” before the last adjective:

I love this amazing, delicious and nutritious sandwich. 

Exceptions to the Rule

Just like many grammar rules in the English language, there are exceptions to adjective order. Take the “big bad wolf” from the popular fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. When recalling the villain from this story, you wouldn’t consider placing the quality (bad) before the size (big), even though this would be the correct sequence according to the adjective order. 

Another example is from Bob Dylan’s song “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” In the song, Dylan sings, “I’m walking down that long lonesome road,” placing size before quality. It would sound strange if he had said “lonesome long road,” wouldn’t it?

Exceptions to adjective order aren’t common, and it’s unclear how or why they came into place. You can usually trust your gut with this – if the adjective order sounds right, it probably is. 

Becoming A Proofreader

Adjective order is one of those English rules that you probably always knew but never realized you knew. We go into more detail about adjective order in our Becoming A Proofreader course, plus plenty more intricacies of the language to look out for while editing. If you’d like to learn the skills and procedures of professional proofreading, you can try the course for free. 

The post The Bad Big Wolf? A Proofreader’s Guide to Adjective Order appeared first on Knowadays.

If you do see non-English punctuation in a document, you will need to correct it or highlight the problem for your client. But what should you look out for on this count? This post covers a few key differences between English punctuation and punctuation in other languages.

Quotation Marks in Other Languages

In English, we use ‘single’ or “double” quotation marks to indicate speech or to quote text. However, there are many ways that other languages represent this type of punctuation.

One of the most common is using guillemets. These punctuation marks are used in French, Italian, Russian, and many other languages. They work similarly to English quotation marks at a basic level, enclosing dialogue or quotations within text:

« Le singe est sur la branche ! »

However, they also differ in some ways. For instance, French-language dialogue places dialogue tags identifying the speaker within guillemets, whereas these would go outside quotation marks in English. In addition, while English uses a new set of quotation marks to show a change of speaker, French indicates a change of speaker with a dash:

« Bonjour ! dit Eddie. Le gâteau ou la mort ?
— Gâteau, s’il vous plaît ! »

A native French speaker might therefore carry these conventions over into English-language writing if they were unfamiliar with the differences, which would require correction.

In languages like German and Danish, meanwhile, a different style of quotation marks are used. These use a lower double quotation mark to open quotations:

„Der Affe ist auf dem Ast!‟

Notice, too, that these marks face in the opposite direction to English quotation marks. As with guillemets, then, this punctuation style would need correcting in English writing.

Spacing in French-Language Writing

You may have noticed some extra spaces before and after punctuation marks in the French sentences above. This is because French uses a non-breaking space before quotation marks, question marks, exclamation points, colons, and semicolons (but not periods or commas).

This can be a hard habit to break when switching to English, so keep an eye out for extra spaces before these punctuation marks if your client has French as a first language.

Question Marks and Exclamation Points in Spanish

Unlike English, Spanish often uses the same sentence structure for statements and questions. As a result, Spanish writers will use an inverted question mark at the start of a sentence so that readers can immediately see that the sentence is a question:

¿Te gusta bailar?

This accompanies a regular question mark at the end of the sentence. The same applies to exclamation points, so an exclamatory sentence will start with a “¡” symbol.

Punctuating Numbers in Other Languages

In English, we tend to use a comma to separate groups of thousands in larger numbers and a point (i.e., a period symbol) to set apart the decimal part of a number.

However, these conventions are quite rare outside of English! In most European languages, these uses are reversed. You can see how this would work in French and German below:

In addition, many international standards and style guides suggest simply using a space between groups of thousands (e.g., “2 500 000” = “two and a half million”).

This makes it important to think about how numbers are punctuated in any document.

Proofreading for Punctuation

Above, we’ve touched on just a few languages and punctuation variations. And there are plenty more across the world! Luckily, most ESL writers adapt their punctuation style to match English-language conventions. You don’t therefore need to know how every punctuation mark is used in every language to work as a proofreader.

Nevertheless, if you see unusual punctuation in a document when working for an ESL client, you can look it up online to see if it helps you understand the intended usage. In turn, this might help you to make a correction (or suggest a helpful change in a comment). You can even offer advice or link to a helpful resource if you spot a repeated punctuation error.

Be careful, though! In some cases, “correcting” punctuation could introduce errors. Punctuation in numbers is a great example, as a space rather than a comma between groups of thousands might just indicate your client is writing for an international audience. And if the context doesn’t make it clear whether a number is large or small, it might even be difficult to tell the difference between a thousand separator and a decimal one.

As with any proofreading, then, make sure to take account of the context in which punctuation appears, and leave a comment for the client if anything is unclear.

Becoming A Proofreader

While knowing the conventions of punctuation in other languages is helpful for a proofreader, expertise in English-language punctuation is much more important! And to master that, all you need to do is take our Becoming A Proofreader course. Try it for free today!

The post Punctuation in Other Languages (And Why It Matters for Proofreaders) appeared first on Knowadays.

Rather than try to explain this topic in full, then, we’ll take a look at a few common proofreading issues related to negative prefixes in English.

Prefixes and ESL Clients

Keep in mind that, as a proofreader, not all your clients will speak English as a first language. Sometimes, this can lead to mixing up negative prefixes. For instance, while most fluent English speakers would spot the problems with the following, an ESL client may not:

Feeling disimportant can make you inhappy.

As such, look out for prefix-related mistakes when proofreading ESL documents. And never assume that what seems obvious to you will be obvious to someone else.

Tricky Word Variations

Some word stems can take more than one negative prefix. And this can make distinguishing between similar words tricky, even for fluent English speakers. Word stems that can take either dis- or un- to create words with distinct meanings are particular offenders.

In the rest of this post, then, let’s look at some similar words that use different prefixes.

Uninterested vs. Disinterested

There is a big difference between being uninterested and being disinterested. Uninterested means not interested, so it applies when describing someone who is bored or simply doesn’t care about something enough to engage with it. For instance:

Despite his brother’s enthusiasm, David was entirely uninterested in mountaineering.

Disinterested, meanwhile, means having no vested interest in something. For instance, if someone were asked to resolve an argument, we might say:

I trust Chrissy’s opinion as she is a disinterested party in this dispute.

To explain this difference further, we can look at academic research: it’s good for a researcher to be disinterested, as it means they’re approaching their study without bias. But it’s probably a bad thing if they’re uninterested, since they won’t do their best work if they’re bored!

Make sure to look out for this difference in your clients’ writing.

Unorganised vs. Disorganised

Both unorganised and disorganised combine a negative prefix with organised to mean not organised. And in many respects, the two words are basically synonymous.

However, the connotations of these words are slightly different. Unorganised is more neutral in tone, so we would typically use it in a descriptive sense. For instance, if we were referring to how we approach raw data from a study, we might say something like:

We then took the unorganised data and applied three sorting techniques.

Here, for instance, unorganised simply means not yet organised.

Meanwhile, disorganised is more negative. It typically implies that something is chaotic or badly planned, giving it a judgemental tone. For example, we could say:

The data was so disorganised it was impossible to draw any conclusions.

In this case, disorganised doesn’t just imply that the data was not yet organised, but also that no attempt had been made to organise it (or that any attempt to do so had failed).

Unorganised also has some niche uses that disorganised doesn’t cover, including:

• Having no organic structure
• Not organised into a worker’s union

If you see these terms when editing, make sure the client has used the right one.

Unsatisfied vs. Dissatisfied 

The distinction between unsatisfied and dissatisfied is subtle, but using the wrong word will change the meaning of a sentence. Both terms mean not satisfied, but while an unsatisfied person is not satisfied yet, a dissatisfied person is actively displeased. Remember:

• Someone who is unsatisfied by their food might order some more.
• But someone who is dissatisfied with their food might send it back.

In this sense, unsatisfied and dissatisfied are like unorganised and disorganised. And, similarly, if you spot either word in a document, take a second to ensure it has been used correctly.

A dissatisfied customer.

Becoming A Proofreader

Want to learn more about grammar, spelling and punctuation? Our comprehensive Becoming A Proofreader course covers this and much more. Sign up for a free trial and try it out today.

The post Negative Prefixes appeared first on Knowadays.

1. Be Clear and Patient in Your Communication

The most important thing about working with an ESL client is clear communication. You need to be sure that both of you are on the same page regarding the job, including what needs doing and what services you, as a proofreader or editor, are willing to provide.

To start with, stick to the most important points, which are the same for any client:

• What they want you to do
• Whether you can deliver what they want
• How quickly you can do it
• How much it will cost

If you are struggling to establish these details via email, try contacting the client via phone or Skype. It may be that they are more comfortable speaking English than writing it. And if you find it hard to understand each other, keep things brief and clear.

Under no circumstances is it acceptable to treat clients as if not speaking English like a native is a sign of their being stupid. Ask yourself – could you create a complex document in a second language that you do not know that well without making any mistakes?

2. Consider Your Rates

As ESL documents can be significantly harder to proofread than native ones, many proofreaders will offer ESL proofreading at a slightly higher rate. This is not obligatory, of course, but it can be helpful. Either way, you should make sure that your rates are made clear from the outset, and that the client knows what they are paying for.

3. Know What to Expect

There are several errors you may see in ESL documents more than others. Look out for:

• Article misuse: ESL clients will often add articles where they should be none (e.g. I like listening to the music) or leave them out (e.g. Queen is [the] best band).
• Irregular words treated as regular: Some words (especially in English, which is notoriously hard to learn) simply don’t play by the rules. Therefore, ESL clients may not always know to write well instead of goodly or went instead of goed, for example. These are particularly simplistic examples, but it’s worth looking out for similar errors.
• Order of adjectives: In English, we know that it’s a big bad wolf (rather than a bad big wolf) and a little green bag (rather than a green little bag) intuitively. This is not always clear to ESL clients, so keep an eye out for bad big wolves and other such errors.
• Incorrect preposition choice: As with articles, ESL clients may have trouble picking the right preposition for a sentence. For instance, since both ‘at’ and ‘on’ can be used with times (e.g. ‘at 9pm’ or ‘on Thursday’), they are easy to mix up if you are less confident with English than a native speaker might be. As such, you could see formulations such as ‘on 9pm’ or ‘at Thursday’, which will need to be corrected during proofreading.

4. Leave Simple, Easy-to-Follow Advice in Comments

Just as when establishing the work required with an ESL client, your comments should be clear and concise. Do not use technical jargon; keep things simple instead.

For instance, you could highlight an informal phrase like ‘not bad’ in an essay by saying:

Instances of litotes such as this may not be consistent with the tone of your document.

But even most native speakers won’t know what ‘litotes’ means. And there’s little point in leaving comments if the client can’t understand you or follow the advice you give. As such, it would be more helpful to say something along the following lines:

The phrase ‘not bad’ is fine in informal English, but probably not an essay.

Much clearer! If you can also suggest an alternative that fits the context, even better.

5. Remember the Peril of Plagiarism

Proofreading for ESL clients may require more rewording than for native clients. If you are working on an academic document, this could leave you and your client open to accusations of plagiarism. Remember, though, that proofreading is not a rewriting service.

Any edits you make to an ESL document should preserve the meaning of the original text. This means focusing on how ideas are expressed. And if you ever find yourself adding extra information or correcting factual details in an essay, you’ve gone too far!

If an ESL client’s work truly needs so much work you cannot edit it without making substantial changes, you could gently suggest that the client redrafts before you can proofread it. Otherwise, though, you may need to explain the issue and decline the job.

Become A Proofreader

Working with ESL clients is common work for many proofreaders. Thankfully, our Becoming A Proofreader course gives you all the skills you need to help them. Sign up to the free trial today.

The post Top 5 Tips for ESL Proofreading appeared first on Knowadays.