EXERCISES IN TEXTUAL EDITING

QUESTION 2
Read TEXT B, which contains some deliberate errors, and answer the set questions.
TEXT B
FOR ME, TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING MEANS POVERTY. BUT SELF-PUBLISH?
NO WAY – ROS BARBER

1. Life as a professional writer is financially depressing, I’ve often been advised

to self-publish. Here’s why I won’t do it:

2. A few days ago, I wrote a piece on my blog exploding the myth of the rich writer
and laying out – described by SARS, as being ‘ruthlessly mathematical’ -- what
authors actually recieve when you buy their books. The simple answer for many 5
of us are: nothing at all. The heady advance in the case of my most recent novel,
was R90 000 for two years’ work.

3. The blog was widely shared on social media and viewed by nearly 10 000 people
in its first week. The shock, agreement and commiserations were followed swiftly
by people telling me that what I really need to do is self-publish my own work. 10

4. If one self-publishes a book, you are not going to be writing for a living. You are
going to be marketing for a living. Self-published authors should except to spend
only 10% of their time writing and 90% of their time marketing. But if your passion
and love is creating worlds and characters, telling great stories, and/or revealing in
language, you might want to aim for traditional publishing. 15
.

[Adapted from: www.the guardian.com

2.1 Refer to lines 1-2 ‘Life as a professional writer I … Here’s why I won’t do it:’

2.1.1 Correct the punctuation error in this sentence. (1)

2.1.2 Provide the noun form for ‘professional’ (line 1) (1)

2.1.3 Identify and state the function of the punctuation mark at the end of
“Here’s why I won’t do it’: (2)

2.2 Refer to paragraph 2:

2.2.1 SARS (line 4) is an example of a / an:

A Abbreviation
B. Acronym
C. Neologism
D Initialism (1)
 2.2.2 Correct the spelling error in this paragraph. (1)

2.3 ‘The blog was widely shared on social media and viewed by nearly
10 000 people in its first week.’ (lines 8-9).

Rewrite this statement in in the active voice. (1)

2.4 Refer to lines 11 – 15:

2.4.1 Correct the pronoun error in this paragraph. (1)

2.4.2 Remove the tautology in this paragraph. (1)

2.4.3 Identify and correct the malapropism in lines 13 -15

(‘But if your … traditional publishing.’)

Identify and correct the malapropism in this extract. (1)

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