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From: chabot@miles.DEC (L. S. Chabot)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: The game's afoot! (really proofreading)
Message-ID: <728@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-Feb-85 14:57:12 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.728
Posted: Mon Feb 25 14:57:12 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Feb-85 09:49:36 EST
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I find doubt in the viability of Will Martin's proposal.

In my limited experience with trying to obtain quality work from people, I have
realized that the best way to encourage responsibility is to relate the job to
the stomach of the employee: er, what I mean is, to get people to do work, you
pay them.  What good is giving people copies of the book, if they can merely
keep the proof and not finish the proofing of the book?  Or, how many people
who are willing to read the latest in their favorite genre really want to keep
all of it?  The reward here doesn't seem big enough to convince enough people
to do the work.

Also, proof-reading requires some competence.  You have to know what to look
for.  It's not going to save a lot of time if you still have to have a 
proof-reader reread the entire manuscript to 1) translate the markings of the
untrained into standard markings and 2) find the things the volunteer missed.

And then there's the logistics of tracking who's got which manuscripts and when
are they going to turn them in.  Plus, if you've got more than one on a 
manuscript, then the real proofreader will have to check multiple copies of the
books.

L S Chabot
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