Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Third overnight on a Tuesday and Wednesday in just as many weeks. Still haven’t finished organizing my files in the five computers.

One of the people who is staying overnight in the Chemistry labs approached me earlier, to proofread a book draft for a former faculty of theirs and a batch mate of mine who is now working in the Cavite campus.

This is not the first time they have done this. I proofread another book of theirs last year, but only because my co-teacher that they approached did not have time to do it. My batch mate knew that I was the one who did the actual work, but their superiors and the publishing company needed someone with at least a master’s degree in Computer Science to pay for the edit. So it was my co-teacher who sent his resume to them, and the check was in his name, but he gave me most of the money, after having deducted his small commission.

What I remember about that first book, which was a workbook on basic Microsoft Office applications, was that in one of the exercises in word processing, the student was supposed to type these paragraphs which included some typographical and grammatical errors. Upon completing that, the student was supposed to correct all those errors using the various methods possible in Microsoft Word.

My recommendation, of course, was to have other exercises in editing other that do not include forcing the students to type out such errors. Especially since it would punish for not following instructions the students who think it was a misprint and intuitively correct them while typing.

I don’t know if they took my advice. I never saw a corrected draft or the finished product after I had given it back to them. But I guess they believe I had done good work if they’re back for another one.

The only problem we have now is that my co-teacher whom they contacted before is not teaching this term to finish his doctorate. Our contact in the Chemistry department said she is going to ask him, but since it is summer, I don’t know how they are going to be in touch in the near future. If she approaches me again, I guess I’ll give her his celphone number.