I also learned a lot about time management

by Paul Ricardo Small, Jr.

Paul Small, an English major at the University of Central Florida, wrote this reflection for an internship during the Fall 2021 semester.

For this SJDictionary Project,  I was a proofreader. As a proofreader I would: Go to the tracking spreadsheet (link shared separately) and find your initials in the “Assigned to (1)” column and look for words that  has my  initials in that “Assigned to (1)” column; find your words using the administrative search; proofread my assigned words; describe problems and mark my initials in the tracking spreadsheet.

Some of the things that should match was: Headword spelling (Our headwords should be spelled just like Johnson’s headwords unless a correction has been noted), Headword hyphens and apostrophes (f Johnson hyphenates the headword, we should do so also. See the image above for lady-bird, lady-cow, lady-fly, and the image below for troy-weight. If Johnson includes an apostrophe in the headword, we should do so also. Note that an apostrophe looks different than a stress mark, as in Alexander’s foot), Headword format (If Johnson’s headword is in ALL CAPS, ours should be also. If Johnson’s headword is in small caps, ours should be also. If Johnson’s headword is italicized, ours should be also.), Font (the font should match in other parts of the dictionary also. If Johnson puts it in italics, our transcription should also use italics.), Headwords (Johnson sometimes puts multiple headwords in the same entry. Are all the headwords present in our transcription? Sometimes extra headwords were accidentally omitted.), Etymology ( Johnson uses a foreign alphabet in the printed dictionary, is that foreign alphabet present in the transcription? Sometimes a word in Hebrew or Greek or whatever was accidentally omitted.), Senses (Are all of Johnson’s senses (definitions) present in the transcription? Is the wording exactly the same?), Sense numbering ( If the sense numbering is different AND the numbering has NOT been deliberately corrected, please make a note) , Quotations (Are all of Johnson’s quotations present in the transcription?), Spelling (Look especially for typos where the transcription confuses the letter “s” with the letter “f.”), and Confusing text (Sometimes the printed dictionary includes special formatting, such as this table in the entry for troy-weight. When our transcription fails to include this formatting, it can become unreadable.). Some of the newer issues where: Are there any words that you cannot get to display? Does your search return any results that seem wrong or confusing? Does anything look extremely strange?

It benefited me by going back to double check (if not triple check) the spelling of something. Beforehand, if autocorrect did not catch it as a problem, I would let it be. I also learned at lot abut time management; when I first started, I felt behind due to me not putting this class as my primary focus along with technical issues. I was quickly able to catch up with by carving out time just for this project. Ever since then, I actually brought this large whiteboard that I use to plan out my week from homework all the way down to free time.