Table 1 Concise textual analysis taxonomy. This Table presents in concise form a taxonomy showing the full range of possible intervention types, from lighter to heavier touch. Full details of the taxonomy, together with examples of each type of intervention, are provided in Appendix A
From: Proofreading student writing: a research-based stakeholder tool focused on ethical practice
Intervention type | Description of intervention | Proofreader’s advice to the student writer |
|---|---|---|
1) Addition | Addition of words, phrases, or sentences (5 words or fewer; 6-9 words; 10 + words) | Add more information |
2) Deletion | Deletion of words, phrases, or sentences (5 words or fewer; 6-9 words; 10 + words) | Delete information |
3) Substitution | Substitution or replacement of one word in the writer’s text e.g., verb tense design → designed | Substitute information |
4) Structural Editing | Repositioning words, phrases, or sentences; reordering/repositioning entire paragraphs, sections, or larger units; and inserting textual guideposts | Restructure parts of the text |
5) Rewriting | Replacement of 6-9 (meso) or 10 plus (meso) consecutive words in the writer’s text OR the replacement of the writer’s text by 6 to 9 (meso) or 10 plus (major) new consecutive words by the proofreader | Replace words in the text |
6) Recombining | Combining one or more sentences, or dividing one sentence into two or more sentences | Combine or divide sentences |
7) Mechanical Alteration | Interventions concerning punctuation, spelling, numbering, capitalisation, abbreviations, acronyms and ampersands, font type and size, text layout and appearance, headings, correlating parts, and citations and references | Make changes that are of a non-content nature |
8) Meaning and Content | Correcting words used incorrectly in terms of meaning, and alerting the student writer to plagiarism and possibly judgmental text | Make changes that concern content |
9) Erroneous Corrections | Instances where the proofreader has modified the text incorrectly | This is a form of error on the proofreader’s part rather than advice |
10) Phatic Communication | Positive comments where the proofreader provides the student writer with encouragement Comments which are forms of interaction/communication with the student writer but do not involve any changes to the text | Rather than advice, this is a form of encouragement from the proofreader that does not involve any textual change(s) |
11) Providing Web Links | Instances where the proofreader provides the student with web links to additional sources of material that could serve an educational purpose | This serves an educative purpose rather than proofreader advice to make textual changes |
12) Non-intervention | Instances where the proofreader appears not to make changes to erroneous parts of a text | This is not a form of proofreader advice but highlights that the proofreader did not make any changes to erroneous parts of the text |
13) Editing Methods | The types of method which a proofreader uses to advise a student of possible changes, e.g., editing electronically in a word-processing package like Microsoft Word, using the tracking function, and letting the author decide which suggested changes to accept/reject electronically | This is not a form of advice but illustrates different forms of editing |
14) Methods of Raising Queries and Comments | Methods of a proofreader communicating queries and comments, e.g., using the comments function in a word-processing package like Microsoft Word to add queries and comments directly to the edited document | This concerns the methods of proofreader intervention rather than actual advice |