The BSI symbols in use

General Marks

^| It is easy to delete an unwanted lettjer, or ^¥©F^word, or even a whole

^ phrascjcvon a whole phraa^. (Watch out that you do not unintentionally get
rid of punctuation that is still needed, though!) Mark the extent of the
deletion clearly, using 'rugby posts'. You do not need to mark the
resulting space toj^ be removed: this will happen automatically. In the 1976
symbol system, you had to mark a close-up when you deleted and did not
want a space to remain; it looked like thi^s. This is no longer nee^ded. ^1 < J]
/

When you want to add a letter, or several letters, or a whole word, use
the jjlisert' symbol in the text, then write the re^ed material withj^insert' C V U 1 / ^ ^-/.
v

Y AvoJ^ j [ , r v s y m D ° l > the^ When adding into material that is closed up together, as at the
n

end of that last sentence, be sure to add a space if the new material isjbe a toj[
*Y tOo f(Lj[ separate^ on the other hand, use close-ups to join a letter (or letters) to aj^ £ fi^
existing word if you do not want a space. You do not need close-ups/^ou are u>ktA^
sj[ adding between characterf even if one of those characters is punctuation.
If you have a large chunk of material to be inserted, and there is
insufficient room in the margin, mark the insertion point in the text and
write the new materia^ linking the two with 'A' in a diamond. If you have
more than one such addition, carry on through the alphabej^
You will often need to substitute a letter for an incorrect letter: cross
through the wrong letter in the text, then write the correct or^e in the margin Y\
followed by the downstroke. The same applies to correcti^ a bunch of
or<LJ letters, a w ^ , or a whole jihain of ataf^. Don't forget the 'rugby posts' to sfcriiva ^ cLfiSvdbti e

SuJ&sh'H*^ make the extent of the ^atisfe^tion clear. ^

Note that if you make the same correction more than once, along the
same line, with nothing else intervening, you can write the symbol just once
and then say how often it's needed, as with mul|tipj^le deletions hetjsje. ^1 (£4)

*f So^^iUjeXC, e l s e , evs "fkc_ p o ^ e j (

 If you make a mistake or change your mind, and no longer want a
change that you've marked, write afrowof dottj beneath the text and put an 0
encircled tick in the margin - this indicates 'leave it as it was'.

Marking Above or Below the Line

When marking superscript or subscript characters, use the 'insert' symbol
and 'substitute' cross-through in the text in the normal way: then in the
margin you will show whether the character is to be raised or lowered. You
will use this for speech marks ('quotation marks'), note indicators such as *y
^ asterisk^ apostrophes as in the abbreviation^^, numbers in chemical ^v. ^
formulae such as H^O (water) or C(j£(carbon dioxide). Be careful to mark 22*
^ exactly what is required:^>pening' and /closing^Jquote marks are not ^ ^
identical, and you must never mark an apostrophe if an opening quote mark
is whaj^i needed!

Bold, Italic and Roman Type

The BSI symbols allow you to change the appearance of the text in quick,
easy and versatile ways. To mark wording for italic, underline it in the text t-JJ
and use the 'italic' symbol in the margin; if you are inserting letters into an
italic word, underline them as well so that your instructions arepre^e. For f- *-J^
bold, use a wavy underline in both text and margin, and remember to wavy-
underline letters that you are inserting into an enjbened word. To take koL
characters out of bold or italic and put them back into normal roman type,
encircle them in the text and then write the relevant symbol in the margin,
but this time crossed through: no^>oj3, nodialid. / f tj
«+•/
Words are sometimes in written in both bold and italic: you use a mix e^j j
of the symbols. If there isn't enough room in the text for the whole mark,
just use(gncircling?as usual. To take wording out of<fold italQ, encircle it in j
the text and cross through the symbol in the margin.
You can take a word(out of bold and put it into italigl using the pair of
symbols side by side and bracketed together: it tells the typesetter 'there's
 only one piece of text, but two changes to be made to it'. And, of course,
you can do it the other way round: (put of italic, into bol<£ 4 f /
There might be times where underline rather than italic is what you
want: encircle the text, and write ar(encircled underTTn&in the margin. To
(^cel(underling? encircle the text and write the 'underline' symbol crossed
out.
If the typesetter has usedfoe incorrect fonj) encircle it and write an ^ )
encircled cross in the margin. Note that this is not the same symbol as an
unencircled cross, which indicates 'flaw, blemish' of some kind (e.g.
(^amageeptype, smudges on the page)^5^ ^

Capitals, Small Capitals and Lower Case

Use a triple underline to change a letter (or word, etc.) from lower case or ss J
from SMALL CAPITALS to capital: it's the same mark in the margin. To
change from lower case or FULL CAPITALS to small capitals, use a double
underline. To change fromfFULL CAPITALS)or(SMALL CAPITALS)to lower ^-j
case, encircle in the text and use the margin symbol crossed out. Of course,
you can also use Encircling) instead of underlining in the text if you're short
of space.

Ligatures
If the font uses ligatures, but separate letters have been typeset, correcting it
ffij ls n o t di^jjcult: substitute the ligature for the letters in the text. You might
£lj ^nd that you need to do the reverse: substitute separate letters for a ligature.

Moving
J To cancel an indent, mark the start of the line to move left - it's the
same in the margin. The vertical 'ticks' show the precise alignment point.
To indent a line, use 'move right'. And be sure to get these the right way
round!
CJ jp^ [jj^ centre text, it's a mix of both. |
 \f the indent is specifically for a new paragraph, use the 'new paragraph'
symbol as it contains precise information for the typesetter. Do not confuse
this with 'new line', which will do exactly that: start a new line at the left-

czl hand margin.p^ike this.

If a line breaks prematurely and should follow on without^
£^Ta break, mark 'run on'.
When moving lines across the page, such as when aligningfiguresin
the columns of a table, bracket the text and show the exact alignment point
with an arrow:
Jg -fthTs is 'move this material to the lefV]
(this is 'move this material to the right' j j |
Similarly, you might have to raise or lower some text:

{ this is too low and needs to be raised to the position marked (

7
Jthis is too high and needs to be lowered to the position marked
Ji—
If you have to move a piece of text, encircle what is to be moveri^and draw a
linefto a different place)^extending into the margin - to show where it is to
be moved to.
There will be times when you have to take material over from onejli;
ne to the next, such as when rectifying a bad word break. It also works
thefother way round: bringing material back to the previous line. Extend the
symbol clearly into the margin and you don't need a separate margin mark.
When the right letters (or words) are present, but in the|orderjWong^
I r*7 ^ p d o n ' t mark them to be dejtjjsd and reaped (which risks introducing new
jj-j / errors): simply tranjfjsjsse the letters (or words) into the|orderjcorrec|l You
can also transpose lines, using the same symbol but vertically rather than
horizontally, or by bracketing lines and drawing arrows:
 Numbering is useful if you have more than two:
second line
<2H
-first line

© -third line

Punctuation
Punctuation can be inserted and substituted just like other characters, using
>^ 'insert' and 'substitute'. Ij£ simple to insert an apostrophe but don't confuse
I it with a commtjltja just the same^you'll be pleased to hear, with yf
substitutions. Note that colons and full points (full stops) are always
encircled^this is to distinguish them from commas and semi-colons. DonJ£ ^£
0 J use encircling for any other punctuation^ The one exception to that is the
ellipsis (three dots), often used to show where something is omitted^r to Q -
(^•]} J signify a trailing-off -l
Semi-colons are not the same as colons^use them to separate two yj^
grammatically complete but closely related sentences. They are also useful
separators in lists, where the items listed are lengthy: for example, you
should enjoy proofreading, which is a worthwhile job^ also copy-editing, a J/
JJ critical intervention^ and proof-editing, a mix of the two.
Be sure of the distinction between hyphens, en rules and em rules / they I——\
are not interchangeable. Use hyphens in compounds where the first element
\~-\ describes the second, as in 'hard-working', 'pos^ar', 'pre^and post-war' or f ^ - j ^
j 'son-in-law', note that when you insert it into a space, it will remain spaced
unless you either mark it for closing up or substitute it for the space. En
rules are often used as dashes in the text, as above; em rules have the same
^\ use j as just there. En rules also show a relationship between two items, such
j(3)j j as a page range (e.g. pages 24^48, or the 1914^8 war) or a direction, as in |-—
j(3>|| the EustonJGlasgow express.
The slash (otherwise known as a solidus) is useful in combinations such
QJ^ as 'and^r' (insert into the word) or 'both^nd' (substitute for the space), or in Q j
dividing web addresses such as 'www.edits.co.uk^readme'. /j
 Space
J Close up unwanted space using 'close-ups' in both text and margin. It's the •

( same symbol but written vertically for removing unwanted space between
lines. Similarly, you can add space horizontally, such as between/Words, and
vertically between lines that are too close together. If you just want a
smaller space, use 'reduce J space': again, this can be used for space

between lines as well. Never confuse 'reduce | space' with 'close u p' as
they are different instructions with different results!
If spacing J between words is | unequal alongjajline, mark 'equalise
space'. You can also signal multiple insertions or reductions of space
between characters, as in iMkMtkk and H ^ ' A W I tab's.
As well as normal inter-word spacing, there are special space symbols:
a thin space can be used in long numbers instead of a comma, as in
1^000^000; a fixed space can ensure that a number and its unit do not
become separated over the turn of a line, e.g. with measurements likeJ7.5 /
cm. Finally, em and en spaces can be used to separate headingsfromtext
that follows immediately, or numbers and their following text in lists:
Here Is The HeadingjiieTe is the text that follows it
First item
2 Second item

MISCELUNEOUS]

I f a heading has been wrongly formatted, encircle it and point to a correct

example. The typesetter will consult the composing instructions for the
precise changes needed - you do not need to mark those as well.
Very often you will need to correct alignment, either vertical or

horizontal. You might find wording i properly aligned horizontally; in

n o
the columns of tables you might find figures misaligned vertically:
100
I, 000
I I , 000

Be aware of whether text is justified or unjustified. If it is unjustified, or

'ragged', and should be justified, with all the lines ending up at the same
point, you can mark it to be justified by using a vertical bracket and the 'full
measure' mark in the margin. •
On the other hand, if text is justified and should be unjustified, use the
same bracket but crossed through. Mark it on the appropriate side: if it's the
right-hand edge that should be unjustified, that's the edge you should mark.
Finally, always check that illustrations are the right way up. If you find
one that's on its side, or upside down, encircle it and write (also encircled)
the amount by which it needs to be turned.

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