March 6, 2016 will go down in history as the day Ghana celebrated mediocrity of monumental proportions. 59 years of poverty; political nuisance; despicable levels of corruption and greed; religiosity; a frail economy; weakening family system; shallow educational goals and a non-responsive health delivery system had been summed in a poorly produced Independence Day Anniversary brochure.
The Independence Anniversary Day brochure which was produced by the Information Services Department (ISD) was littered with factual and grammatical errors of unacceptable proportions blamed on the printer’s devil. The result: Ghana became a subject of ridicule locally and internationally; subsequently the acting Director of the ISD lost his job; whiles the opposition got something to make noise about.
Many stakeholders and players in the print industry—journalists, writers and publishers—were unhappy about the embarrassment brought about by the poorly produced brochure. Blaming the errors on the devil was the least excuse or explanation they wanted to hear. So what exactly is printing? How did it come about? What are the processes involved. What goes into the production of a quality printed material?
Printing: Origin and Evolution
Printing is a process for reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The history of printing dates back to the duplication of images by means of stamps in very early times. The use of round seals to roll impressions into clay tablets occurred in early Mesopotamian civilization before 3000 BCE whiles in Egypt and China, the use of small stamps for seals preceded the use of larger blocks. Subsequently, the printing of cloth and paper emerged. The development of printing has made it possible for reading materials such as books, newspapers, magazines to be produced in great numbers thus playing an important role in promoting literacy among the masses.
Printing in Ghana can be traced to the time of early missionary work in this country. As far back as 1851, the Methodist Mission had opened a printing house at Cape Coast which was also used by the Basel Mission. James Hutton Brew, a man from Abura-Dunkwa in the Central Region is noted to have been the first African to establish a printing press in Ghana in 1874. J. H. Brew published The Gold Coast Times a fully printed newspaper, wholly produced in the country fortnightly. The Gold Coast Times lasted from March 1874 to November 1885. Consequently, the early 1900s and the late 1930s saw a tremendous increase in the volume of printing work done in Ghana as a result of increased industrial and commercial activities, as well as developments in education and health. Since then, printing has become an important aspect of publishing industry in Ghana mostly concentrated in Accra.
Printing and publishing have since evolved and improved tremendously. Today, technology makes things easier. Copy editors and proofreaders now employ various forms of technology to make their tasks easier. Even before issuing the command to print the very first copy when the work is finally ready, one has an advantage of preview to see how the finished work would look like. What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG), so there’s no excuse for a brochure full errors! Those responsible for the brochure fed garbage into the system and could not have expected a different outcome when they issued the print command. But, there’s always the printer’s fall-guy:
Printer’s Devil
The origin of printer’s devil is not definitively known but a number of theories about its emergence exist: one account says a printer’s devil was an apprentice in a printing firm assigned with tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type; another theory is associated with a fanciful belief among printers that a special devil haunted print shops, performing mischief such as misspelling words or removing entire lines of completed type or inverting type. With time, the apprentice became a substitute source of blame and came to be called a printer’s devil by association.
English tradition, however links the origin of printer’s devil to the first English printer and book publisher, William Caxton who was said to have had an assistant named “Deville”, which evolved to “devil” over time, as that name was used to describe other printers’ apprentices. But printer’s devil today relates to mistakes associated with type and print.
There is more to typographical and grammatical errors in type than meet the eye. To produce a piece of work full of printer’s devil the man behind the printer has to be a devil—the devil in the form of a philistine who sets up a printing firm because he can afford a desktop computer, a printer and a ream of sheets; or the mediocre editor who forwards a poorly written piece to the lithographer to be superimposed on plate without meticulous editing.
The Writing Process.
The writing journey from start to finish is quite rough yet exciting. Writing is a process with different stages which professionals and student writers all follow. The five stage process include: Prewriting; Drafting; Revising; Editing and Presenting.
- Prewriting
This is the idea stage where the writer probes his thoughts to discover a topic and a purpose for writing
- Drafting
This is the stage where the writer puts down related sentences and paragraphs; and further explores the topic to discover a focus.
- Revising
At this stage the writer reads the draft closely, reminding himself of the purpose and reworking and clarifying ideas.
- Editing
This is the stage where the writers looks closely at each paragraph, each sentence and each word to determine their relevance and correctness; he endeavours to ensure that the sentences flow smoothly and are grammatically correct. He also makes sure his spellings are correct as much as his punctuation.
- Presenting
This is the stage whether writer decides that the piece is worthy of sharing with an individual or the public.
In sum, to produce a good piece of writing, a writer must not forget to adhere to the 5-Cs rule:
- Correctness: (making sure your facts are accurate and your use of language is correct).
- Conciseness: (avoiding irrelevant facts, unnecessary words and long-winded explanations. Note however that you can write a long article and still be concise).
- Clarity: (having a clear idea of what you want to say at the start, middle and end of an article or story when you sit down to begin; avoid ambiguity; make what you write clear to your reader without making them struggle for understanding by giving all the necessary information and expressing it in a way which is easy to understand).
- Coherence: (presenting your ideas in an orderly, logical way so that your reader is able to follow your reasoning process).
- Completeness: (ensuring that readers have all the facts that are available without being burdened with what is unnecessary or trivial).
And when you are finally done, put your work aside for a few days before sending it off to press. It doesn’t matter how many times you read over your own text, you will always spot mistakes but you are also likely to gloss over some. Many people these days are so desperate to see their names in print that as soon as they think they are done with the writing they ship off to the press.
Editing and proofreading are professional skills needed in producing quality pieces of written work so most publishing houses employ the services a proofreader and a copy editor in addition to the general editor. Together, they all make sure what they are putting in the public domain is of top quality by identifying and correcting, spelling mistakes, wrong sentence structure, layout of the text, the style and formatting, as well as checking for factual inaccuracies and potentially libellous comments. But the writer must not take this for granted; he must make sure what he is sending off is of good quality.
If one chooses to self-publish his work, he should be wise to employ a copy-editor and a proofreader to check the work in order to project a professional image of himself.
Way Forward
Ghana’s writing and print industry have a long way to go as demand for books has been reported dwindling for some time now. As a result, the art of writing has also taken back stage (somehow). Refreshingly, some organizations have introduced interventions to revive interest in reading and writing.
The Ghana Association of Writers (GAW) organizes “GAW Sunday” monthly to treat the public to poetry renditions, book readings, and spoken word among others. The Writers Project Ghana is an international literary organization based in Ghana and the United States working to promote a literary culture in Africa and around the world. Copy-Ghana is the Reprographic Rights Organization of Ghana working to secure the professional, economic, moral and other interests of rights owners to engender their continued participation in the literary and creative industry. Media organizations like Joyfm and Citifm also have their own programmes which they run to promote literacy.
Consequently, standards in the literary and print industry are expected to rise and mediocrity reduced to the barest minimum if not eliminated completely.
PS:
- Ironically, I had to crosscheck some of my facts for this article from the ISD’s official website.
- Citations for this piece would be published in my collected articles later.