Department of Afrikaans and Dutch

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Browsing Department of Afrikaans and Dutch by Subject "Academic editing"

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    ’n Aanlyn Afrikaanse akademiese redigeerwoordeboek : die bruikbaarheid van ’n prototipe
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-03) Blom, Maret; Lourens, Amanda; Feinauer, Ilse; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Afrikaans and Dutch.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The academic writing skills and research skills of postgraduate students at higher education institutions in the South African context are inadequate (Van Aswegen 2007: 1141), and therefore there is a growing demand for the services of editors of specifically academic texts. In a previous study conducted by me I looked in depth at the reference sources (style guides or standardisation sources) the editors of specifically Afrikaans academic texts use to ensure consistency in academic texts. After researching various Afrikaans reference works and doing an empirical study where questionnaires were given to freelance editors to determine their needs and problems in terms of current dictionaries, I foundthat there is a need for an Afrikaans dictionary for academic editing purposes in the field of academic editing. The current Afrikaans dictionaries and style guides are outdated and only parts thereof are useful for the academic editor.Editors of Afrikaans academic texts would therefore benefit from an Afrikaans dictionary that is especially aimed at theirneeds. Fuertes-Olivera and Tarp’s (2014) function theory for specialised online dictionaries was used to set up a model for an Afrikaans online dictionary for academic editing purposes, with the hope that this model wouldbe usefulin further effortsto compile such a dictionary. Fuertes-Olivera and Tarp (2014:192) divide the design, compilation and updating of a specialised online dictionary into three phases, namely the pre-compilation phase, the compilation phase and the post-compilation phase. Fuertes-Olivera and Tarp’s (2014:192) pre-compilation and compilation phases wereused to determine the online dictionary’s functions and data types.A homepage, five articles of examples from different disciplines and a mini user guide were then drafted. The Afrikaans dictionary for academic editing purposes that will eventually be compiled on the basis of thismodel will attempt to fulfil the role of a style guide and standardisation source. The proposed dictionarywill deal with the following issues: correct wordusage;writing or spelling rules that the academic editor will find useful;information about language use in specific subject fields;and information on academic editing as specialisation area. Links to other general and specialised dictionaries (including subject field dictionaries)will also be provided. The problem, however, is that the post-compilation phase of the model for an Afrikaans online dictionary for academic editing purposes has notbeen implemented and the model has therefore not been empirically tested. In an attempt to eliminate usability problems at an early stage in the compilation of the online dictionary for academic editingpurposes, a usability study istherefore carried out. The rationale for executingthe post-compilation phase in this paper and testingthe usability of the model’s data presentation and data description is based on Heid (2011), Kwary (2013) and Du Plessis’s (2017) statement. They aver that modernlexicographic products will satisfy their users’ needs if thosedictionaries take the user’s consulting procedures, as well as their experience and interaction with the device and software into consideration. A multidisciplinary study making use of interaction between editing, specialised lexicography, usability studies and research methods wasconducted as follows:Firstly, Blom’s model(2018) for an online dictionary for academic editing purposes wasused to set up a prototype. This prototype was based on editors’ expectations of the Afrikaans online dictionary as determined in a pre-test questionnaire. Secondly, the effectivenessand,thirdly, user satisfaction of this prototype wereevaluated by means of editing tests that determinedthe problems that academic editors hadwith the prototype’s data presentation and data description. After the tests werecompleted, quantitative data in terms of errors and task accuracy werecollected from the performance data.Qualitative data werecollected from the preference data regardingthe users’ experience while using the prototype. Guidelines for the further improvement of the Afrikaans online dictionary for academic editing purposes werethen drafted;these guidelines can be used in further studies to refine and compose this dictionary.