What It Is (posts below left; rate sheet, client list, other stuff below right)

My name is Bob Land. I am a full-time freelance editor and proofreader, and occasional indexer. This blog is my website.

You'll find my rate sheet and client list here, as well as musings on the life of a freelancer; editing, proofreading, and indexing concerns and issues; my ongoing battles with books and production; and the occasional personal revelation.

Feel free to contact me directly with additional questions: landondemand@gmail.com.

Thanks for visiting. Leave me a comment. Come back often.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

negative impressions

I'm proofreading a rather interesting (and well-written, well-edited, highly detailed and researched) textbook about how to design surveys. In my world, this is light reading.

When people are asked to make a self-assessment on a 10-point scale, the responses will be better if the scale is from 0 to 10 rather than from -5 to +5; that is, the former type of assessment in one case drew a 34 percent response rate of people ranking themselves 0 to 5, while the same question scaled to different numbers drew only an 18 percent response rate of people ranking themselves -5 to 0, even though what is being reported is exactly the same. People just don't like viewing themselves with that "negative" attached.

Where the book is not so good, and I've noticed this a lot lately, is in the graphs and figures. I am coming to the conclusion that the typesetting of graphs and figures was infinitely better back in the '80s, a topic I will explore more in a subsequent post.

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Regular reader(s) will notice some changes here. I've moved (at blog goddess Moi's suggestion) and expanded the Brushes with Fame section. So if you've read it before, please take the opportunity to look again. The details bring out the stories a little. Not that they've got much to do with work . . .

I'm also trying to spread the word about the blog a little, and I'm already starting to see some results. If nothing else, I might get a new pen pal or two, even if just for a day. And you never know where some seeds might fall. What's the gardening phrase? The first year it sleeps, then it creeps, then it leaps?

And I've added the map. In the first day, two lost souls from India and Australia clicked in. If you're still around, let me know what you think and what brought you here.

3 comments:

moi said...

See, this is why I love visiting your blog. Where ELSE would I discover tidbits like this:

I am coming to the conclusion that the typesetting of graphs and figures was infinitely better back in the '80s, a topic I will explore more in a subsequent post.

That is good to know.

Oh, and thank you for indulging my celebretard-saturated brain, and moving your brushes with fame. Tere sounds like my kinda gal.

czar said...

Moi: Except for the fact that y'all agree on absolutely nothing, I think you'd get along great. Well, there is one common area of interest. Out of nowhere about a week ago, Tere said, "You know, there's one thing I could go absolutely crazy about: shoes. I can carry around the same handbag all the time, but I just love shoes."

moi said...

Shoes get us all, in the end.