EXERCISES IN COPY READING

Edit the news sentences using your own symbols. Make sure to check the punctuation,
sentence structure, subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent agreement, and other
rules.

During the 1990s, a nine year old girl in Ruston Louisiana won a trophy, 5000 dollars, and a trip to the
United States Capital Bl;dg.
Thomas Shriver Junior an employee of the Roess Company in Fairbanks Alaska has a Ph.D. in
economics and will be here Mon, Tues., & Wed.
Prof. Rebecca Malone of Forty-two Fifth Avenue works in the History Department and shares an
office in Rm. 247 of the Humanities Bldg.
Afterwards, 7 persons, all United States citizens, testified that the US navy payed the Westinghouse
Corporation $14,200,000 dollars.
The Washington Post reported Tue. That the suspect is White, in her 30s, about 5 ft., 2 inches tall,
and weighs about one hundred pds.
Only one media reported that the President of the National Rifle Assn. met with sixteen members of
the US Congress on August 23, 2008.
During the 1960s, a committee of the United States Congress estimated that the program would cost
$7 to $8.4 billion dollars.
The boy, age 7, had 42 cents and said his mother, the Mayor, will attend the P.T.A meeting Nov. 28 if
the temperature remains above 0.
It was an unusual phenomena. During the twentieth century, the odds were 9 to 1 that 80 % of the
Mayors would be reelected to a 2nd term.
Moving backwards, the 14 yr old babysitter in martin Tn. Said goodbye, then picked up
the bible and ran towards her home on Roe St.

COPYREADING AND HEADLINE WRITING EXERCISES

Exercise I.

Copyreading Signs and Symbols

Direction: Illustrate through signs and symbols the following copy fixers actions/remarks.

Copy fixers Actions/Remarks

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Delete; take out

Insert space
Insert letter(s) or word(s)
Transpose letters or words
Close up; no space
Align with left margin
Align with right margin
Center
Start new paragraph
Do not start new paragraph

To Be Edited

Always mark all proofse

Always markproofs properly.
Always mak profs properly.
Always proofs makr properly.
Always m ark proofs prop erly.
Always mark proof
Always mark proof
Mark Proofs
Always mark proofs properly.
Always mark proofs.
Mark them properly.

11. Do not start new line

Always mark proofs

properly.

12. Do not make correction;

Let stand as written

Always mark proofs properly.

13. This is wrong; see copy

14. This is questionable;
Check or query author

Always mark proof

Never mark proofs properly

15. Insert comma

16. Insert period
17. Insert apostrophe
18. Insert quotation marks
19. Insert hyphen
20. Insert dash
21. Spell out
22. Align

Proofs if properly marked

Always mark proof properly
The proofs in the proof mark.
He said, Mark proofs properly.
The writer editor marks proofs.
Always not sometimes marks.
Proofing is a no. 1 priority.
Alw ys mark
oofs properly.
a
pr

Exercise II. Editing a Copy

Direction: Edit the feature article using the copyreaders editing marks.
When Obstacles Get You Down

Do obstacles get you down when trying to get something doone? Consider the following
After Fred Astaires first screen test, a 1933 memo from the mgm testing director said: Cant
act. Slightly bald. Can dance a little. Astaire kept that memo over the fire place in his Beverly Hills
home
An expert said of famous football coach VinceLombardi: He possesses minimal football
knowledge. Lacks motivashun.
Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, was advised by her family to find work as a
Servant or seamstress.
Beethoven handled the voilin awkwardly and prefered playing his own personal
compositions instead of improving his technique.
His teacher called him utterly hopeless as a composer. The teacher of famous opera singer
Enrico Caruso said Caruso had no voice at all and could not sing?
Walt Disney was fired by a news paper for lacking ideas. He also goed backrupt several
times before he build Disneyland.
Eighteen publishers turned down Richard Bachs 10000 word story about a soaring seagull before
Macmillan finally published it in 1970. By 1975, Jonathan Livingston Seagull had sold more than 7
million copies in the U.S. alone.