Trademarks and bullet-points.

I have two questions today. One may have already been answered in the past, but I couldn't find it.

The first question deals with adding a period at the end of a bullet-point topic. In Test 1 and 2, we were supposed to add a period after the subject of each topic, such as Anthologies or Litblogs. Why do we add a period after the topics? A lot of teachers in various departments always discouraged one-word sentences, or two-word sentences. Wouldn't a colon, or semi-colon be more effective in these cases since the author is trying to describe or define the topic?

My second question deals with trademarks. When do we, as copyeditors, put in the trademark logo when we come across a brand-name that's being used in the manuscript? Do we have to wait for certain copyrights to be handed over, or are we allowed to leave it as it is?

Freelance Copyediting

In class on Friday, someone asked what it took to be a freelance copyeditor. Frank gave us a response on what is needed, and other little bits of information, but I'm curious on what the average workload is for a freelance copyeditor. Frank painted a very nice, if probably over-exaggurated, of a freelance copyeditor working on manuscripts in front of a fireplace while in pajamas. As aesthetically pleasing as that sounds, what do employers look for when it comes to being a freelance copyeditor? Do they start you out with ten manuscripts and see how fast and accurate you work, or do you work on a script-by-script basis?

Correction similarity

My comment is similar to Moon Yun's in that I'm referring to our first test quite a bit. Mostly because when I make a correction to the test, I immediately realize that I'm making the same marks and corrections that the first test had. I know my subconscious is at work here, because when I come across a sentence, I know from the previous test what word might improve the over-all flow. More often than not it's the same word, or the same striking of multiple words.

Personally, I have a huge fear about accidental/unintentional plagiarism. I think that's why I have such a strong interest in copyediting in the first place. It's very hard to plagiarize sentence corrections, fixes to grammar, and spelling suggestions. However at this point in time I am panicking just a little because I realize it may be possible to plagiarize copyediting marks too!

Footnotes and Superscript.

I've always been curious when and where one should use Footnotes and Superscript. When does it become necessary to footnote, and what justifies the use of superscript? I've often read books or essays that contain superscript and I always enjoy how neat and tidy it can make a specific text look.

I've learned (the hard way) that superscript should not be substituted for citation. I'm hoping to learn a little more on this subject since we, as editors, need to know when to make such corrections or suggestions to an author.

-Davis Hoffman