March 8, 1984
Dear Dewey:
Enclosed please find the corrected chapters 15-20, and chapters 21-25, the latter having gotten only a single proofreading by me. I am in the process of completing the proofreading of the last six chapters, and entering the references. Once that is done, I will start on the address lists.
To answer your question about hyphenation I do not hyphenate at all when entering the text. The machine does that according to certain rules which usually produce good results, but in some cases are not satisfactory to humans. You pointed out two such instances. The alternatives are (1) to avoid hyphenation altogether. This would not be difficult technically: all it takes is one instruction at the very beginning. The drawback is that in the case of several consecutive long words on a line, the machine would have to fill the gaps with a lot of blanks. (2) Pick out the objectionable words, and tell the machine how to break them up. This is done once for each word, and the machine will do the break properly whenever the same word occurs later on. Although it is true that the lines in the typeset text will not be the same as those in the pages we are working on at present (which are done on the laser printer), I think it is still a good idea to start picking out the words that are badly hyphenated (all you need to do is to circle the objectionable word; I will know how to fix it). I will then make a small “dictionary,” telling the machine how to break the words whenever it comes across them. This will reduce our work later on when we get the “preview” file. The “preview” file will have the lines and pages exactly as the final typeset text and we will then take care of the remaining problem words. But I would like to have the substantive proofreading completed before we get to the “preview” stage, because the text then is not as easy to read. Even at that stage, though, there will be no obstacle to making any sort of changes or additions. Once we are completely satisfied with the text, it is sent to the typesetter, and the typeset pages are produced very quickly, usually overnight. Only then it becomes problematic and costly to make changes. What I intend to do is to send a few sample pages first to be sure that there are no problems. The total bill for the typesetting will come to about $1,200 (assuming 400 pages at $3.00/page).
As far as any errors you find or changes you want on the second proofreading, all I need is the relevant pages. It would be helpful if you would jot down the chapter number at the top of each such page that you send back. This way I will be able to locate the passage faster.
I’ll have the rest of the book off to you in a few days.
My best,
