editing our papers

I found some tips about editing or proofreading. Hope they help everyone as we come to the end of our semester.

Preparing yourself to proof or edit

-Write at the end of the day; edit first thing in the morning. (Usually, getting some sleep in between helps.)
-Listen to music or chew gum. Proofing can be boring business and it doesn't require much critical thinking, though it does require extreme focus and concentration. Anything that can relieve your mind of some of the pressure, while allowing you to still keep focused, is a benefit.
-Don't use fluorescent lighting when proofing. The flicker rate is actually slower than standard lighting. Your eyes can't pick up inconsistencies as easily under fluorescent lighting.
-Spend a half-hour a month reviewing grammar rules.
-Read something else between edits. This helps clear your head of what you expect to read and allows you to read what really is on the page.
-Make a list of things to watch for—a kind of "to do" list—as you edit.

Backstage in a Bureaucracy

A News@UH item on the book I edited for UH Press.

Seriously now…

I didn't realize that the blog's sidebar had a link to this February 2005 encomium by Arnold Zwicky. Worth reading now—near the end of the semester—because it presents editing from the author's point of view. I've mentioned the importance of understanding our craft from this perspective, but Zwicky's voice will give my words new meaning.

MISS GOULD PASSES

In response to an affectionate appreciation ("The Point of Miss Gould's Pencil", by Verlyn Klinkenborg, NYT 2/16/05, p. A26) of the work of Eleanor Gould Packard at The New Yorker, where she served for 54 years, Michael R. Burr (letter to NYT, 2/21/05, p. A20) elevates the magazine's "venerable arbiter of style" (Klinkenborg) to a kind of sword-wielding sainthood:

No mere proofreader or pedant, Eleanor Gould Packard was a guardian of civilization in a thankless struggle to avoid its disintegration. She upheld standards and imposed discipline, which in turn taught discipline in one's thought, and ultimately in one's actions as well.

For those of us who care about such things, Miss Gould's magnificent efforts are greatly appreciated, and she will be sorely missed.

Burr totally misses the point of Klinkenborg's appreciation (now echoed in a longer memorial by David Remnick in the 2/28/05 New Yorker, pp. 34f.)—that what Gould was trying to do was help writers say what they were aiming for in a language with "a kind of Euclidean clarity—transparent, precise, muscular" (Remnick)—and instead celebrates her career with ravings about the disintegration of civilization. We aim for grace and style, but somehow we get barbarians at the gates. Undisciplined barbarians, at that. Some people seem unable to think about matters of syntax, usage, logic, rhetoric, and diction except through the distorting glass of the image of the Great Decline.

Not, however, Klinkenborg and Remnick, who experienced Gould's editing first-hand.

As Klinkenborg puts it:

I learned from her neatly inscribed comments that even though I was writing correctly—no syntactical flat tires, no grammatical fender-benders—I was often not really listening to what I was saying. That may seem impossible to a reader who isn't a writer. But Miss Gould's great gift wasn't taking writers seriously. It was taking their words seriously.

She received the title Grammarian (a title that was retired with her), not because she was primarily concerned with grammaticality, but (presumably) because people who aren't actually grammarians use the label grammar for everything in language that is subject to regulation or judgment. She had four pet peeves, Remnick reports, two of which (failure to observe the distinction between restrictive and non-restrictive modifiers, incorrect subject-verb agreement) are matters of grammar in the narrow sense, two of which (indirection, careless repetition) are not. But it's clear from what Klinkenborg and Remnick say that her attention was almost entirely devoted to other things; after all, grammar in the narrow sense was very unlikely to be an issue in manuscripts submitted by Janet Flanner, J. D. Salinger, Pauline Kael, or Lawrence Weschler. Writers and editors valued her advice (even when they bridled at it) not because she saved them from error but because she was trying to help them realize their intentions.

I've had many experiences with editors. Some I remember with distaste even after many years; few things are quite as alarming and frustrating as an editor who comes at your manuscript like a grammar-checking program, with nothing more than a long list of Don'ts and fixes for them. But other encounters were rewarding, with editors who aimed for clarity, an effective voice, and an appreciation of the audience, and who negotiated choices and changes with me. (Most recently, Bruce Shenitz at Out magazine.) Somehow, the putative disintegration of civilization never entered into these exchanges.

Another (flat) biographical note

You might want to print this out and try editing it:

Oakley Hall, author of eleven novels, two of which were made into movies, five mysteries, six librettos, and a textbook, is teaching classes for the creative writing program in the UHM English Department spring semester. Hall, who attended the University of Hawaii in 1938, is a professor of English at the University of California, Irvine, where he directs a graduate program in creative writing. The movies, "Warlock" and Downhill Racers," were based on his novels.

Translations and Editing

In this morning's Star-Advertiser there was an interesting Island Voices piece, "Chinese translation of election ballot was poorly done." The writer said the Chinese translation of the latest election ballot contained inconsistencies, mistranslations, and unintelligible parts that confused and frustrated Chinese voters. Language access is a hot issue, and I think most agencies are happy just to find someone, or anyone, who can translate their materials. Increasingly, though, we hear about poor translations. This article points out the real problems that poor translations can cause and suggests the need for competent editors, as well as translators, in all languages.

Professional editing

Just one of the blasts from the pasts you might want to read…

Nuns need help with editing too!

I reside in an off-campus graduate dorm run by the nuns, which poses a unique set of challenges that I won't go into here.

I've posted a small sample of the horribly written signs that plaster our common area. When I copied and pasted this into Microsoft Word, my computer editing program started to sputter.

Pay special attention to the item proceeded by **.

DECEMBER 12... 12/12/08

MARIANNE HALL

Report:

The water overflowed very badly on the 3rd floor. We collected @) 15 gallons of
water. I hope it does not happen again.

The plumbing report: In cleaning the pipes leading out of the toilet areas, there was much unwanted debris in the pipes.

1. For those who have been emptying other items into the toilets,

2. DO NOT;
A. DO NOT THROW ANY TYPE OF SANITARY PADS INTO
THE TOILET.(TAKE IT TO YOUR ROOM AND EMPTY IN YOUR TRASH)
B. DO NOT EMPTY ORDINARY PAPER IN THE TOILET.
C. DO NOT USE KLEENEX OR OTHER SOFT PAPER. THESE BECOME SWOLLEN AND CLOG THE PIPES.
D. DO NOT USE ANY CLEANING PAPER CLOTH AND DO NOT EMPTY THESE INTO THE TOILET.

EMPTY THESE INTO YOUR OWN BASKET.

2. USE;
A. USE only Toilet TISSUE PROVIDED

Last reminder: Use toilet paper -@ 8 sheets- flush; use 8 more;
continue ... so the bowl does not clog (get stuck.)

** This has to be written because there is Is/ are some who do not know how to use an American toilet. Please help us to help them.
Thank you.

Oh, yeah I should mention here that before 2008, the date of this note, it was recommended that we use only 2 squares of toilet tissue.

The Meaning of "Meaning"

Pat,

In my notes from a couple of classes ago, I wrote down four things we need to be aware of when we edit a piece: author's style, author's intention, audience, and meaning. I think you said determining meaning was more difficult than we might think.

I wonder if you or others could say a little bit more about meaning and how one goes about determining it. How is it different from intention?

Exercise F

Some of the answers in the answer key to exercise F seem vague to me.

For example, (lines 13, 14, and 15)

"A company that produces fewer than eight or ten titles a year is most likely a two- or-three-person operation,..."

The answer key for 14-15 indicates that a

" A Suspended compound: " two- or three-person operation." Make sure the hyphens and word spaces are indicated correctly."

Other examples included are:

The fourteen- and fifteen-year-old students attended.
Steel-plated or -cased vaults were used.

I feel like the correct answer should be a two-or-three person operation. The explanation doesn't clarify the answer to me. When I look up hyphenated compounds the only explanation that I can find says, "if it is not listed in the dictionary then there is no hyphen." There has to be a better explanation. I find this confusing.

Also, I feel unclear about lines 27- 28,

"books, computer books, gardening books, cook- books, and every stripe of how-to-books."

The answer key for line 28 states that

"Dictionaries show a hyphen in the adjective how-to, but there's no hyphen between the adjective how-to and the noun book.

and then changes "how-to-books" to "how-to book".

I am confused about the placement of the hyphens, and why the the plural form of book becomes singular in the answer key.

Indirection

I, too, have been interested to learn about Eleanor Gould Packard. One of the most interesting things, I thought, was her abhorrence of indirection, which former New Yorker editor Harold Ross is said to have shared. I had never heard of indirection and wasn't sure what it was, but this morning I read an obituary in the Star Advertiser that I think has two good examples in the first paragraph:

"After she died this month, a frail 89-year-old alone in a flat in the British seaside town of Torquay, Eileen Nearne, her body undiscovered for several days, was listed by local officials as a candidate for what is known in Britain as a council burial, or what in the past was known as a pauper's grave."

Is this indirection? If it is, I can see why it might be annoying. (Eileen Nearne was awarded a number of medals for her work with the French resistance during World War II.)

Classifieds Need Editing, Too

This ad was seen in the current issue of Ka Leo:

Work Wanted

Looking for a part time offer where you can earn

extra income at your own flexible schedule plus

benefits that takes only little of your time.

Requirements -

* Should be a computer Literate.

* 1-2 hours access to the internet weekly.

* Must be Efficient and Dedicated

contact us with your resume for more details and

job information at

eheatherallbeautycosinc@gmx.com

Hurry.don't wait! This great opportunity is limited

so contact All Beauty Cosmetics Inc. today!

So, I think it's fair to say that the classifieds don't get edited! Let's see what we can do with this...

Help Wanted

Looking for a part-time job with benefits where you can earn

extra income on a flexible schedule that only takes a little

of your time?

Requirements -

* Should be computer literate.

* Access Internet 1-2 hours weekly.

* Must be efficient and dedicated.

Email your resume to Heather at eheatherallbeautycosinc@gmx.com
for more information and details.

Hurry, don't wait! This great opportunity is limited.

Contact All Beauty Cosmetics, Inc. today!

I'm assuming that the email address is correct, but it might be a good idea to verify it with the submitter, too. As a suggestion to the submitter, I think it might be a good idea to make the email address something a little less confusing. I think she's going for e-heather-all-beauty-cos-inc, but it's easy to see how readers might see the word "ethereal" or "e-health" that might cause the email address to be misentered.

Otherwise, most of the corrections were related to word ordering and inconsistencies in punctuation and capitalization.

How About Comic Book Copy Editing?

The other day I was re-arranging things in my room and came across an old comic book of mine. It then occurred to me, being that I am taking this editing class, I wanted to know how these get edited. I looked on the internet, inputting my query into a few different search engines, and came up empty handed. I don't know who copy edits comics, but I assume that the type of editing that occurs is very light due to its creative nature. I also noticed that the language used in comics is sometimes made up. I promise this will be my last inquiry into this subject, but who edits these types of publications?

Letter

I read through everyone's posts about the badly written letter we are to edit. I think the one thing that has been overlooked is that this is a solicitation letter or request. I worked for a firm that sent these out regularly after business had been completed. That being said, they are usually a template situation that are made to cut and past names into certain points of the letter. What this plumber is trying to do is get referrals. A complete rewrite is almost necessary to make it flow better.
As for the beginning, I think the "Aloha!" should be completely taken out. I do not think that is how a business letter should even start.

The Letter...

I am mortified that any company would send something like this out to its customers or the general public!!! I agree with Samantha in that I am having extreme difficulty simply copyediting, rather than tearing this piece apart and rewriting (something I had alluded to earlier when it came to editing papers). I'm truly frustrated because there are so many basic grammatical mistakes that it seems almost impossible to even distinguish a starting point!

Moving Large Sections of Text

I am looking at the business letter we were assigned to edit and having a difficult time drawing the line between editing and rewriting. I have been trying to make changes by moving and combining sentences and now I am wondering what is the cleanest way to indicate those changes. We have already seen a few examples of how to move phrases, etc. but how, for example, would I best indicate the following change:

Original-
Aloha! We just wanted to follow up with you on how are you and if everything is coming along satisfactory with your tub installation job, which we did for you on January 22 of this year.


Edited-
Aloha! We wanted to follow up on the tub installation job we did for you on January 22 of this year to ensure that everything is coming along satisfactorily.

Aside from some of the more minor edits, what is the cleanest way to move a large chunk of text without rewriting it?

Grammar News

The New York Times has a nice site called Grammar News, with links to articles, books, and blogs. Several items on the site are relevant to our topic of how, and how much, to edit. One in particular is “Let’s Kill All the Copy Editors” (http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/01/magazine/l-let-s-kill-all-the-copy-editors-652691.html?ref=grammar), written by a manuscript editor at a university press. It stresses that editors and authors need to learn to cooperate.

Editing Within Different Mediums?

Reading the bit about “One Paragraph, Three Ways” was very interesting, as I had never thought about the importance of preserving the author’s style when editing. However I was wondering if copyediting in different mediums call specifically for different degrees of editing "heaviness". For example, it would probably be safe to assume that maintaining authorial style would be very important in a novel, and so a light copyedit would be used to revise the piece. But what about magazines, newspapers, or web pages? Are there any standards that are restrictive of the medium that the editor must work in?

Editing Student Essays

I wish I had read "One Paragraph, Three Ways" many years ago when I began tutoring students for SAT and SSAT. I felt that most of the time I was completely rewriting and reworking their essays to fit my style. After reading this section I realized that what I should have been focusing on was their style, maintaining internal consistency within their essays. The author notes that by resisting the urge to rewrite someone's writing, the copyeditor will be able to "devote more of [their] attention to [their] primary responsibilities." Rather than change the writing around to fit the editor's voice, a copyeditor should devote time and energy into finding mechanical errors, internal inconsistencies, and grammatical mistakes.

Factual queries

I am curious about the copyeditor's role, if any, in addressing factual errors as opposed to "querying factual inconsistencies" as Einsohn mentions. (I assume the author's spelling Oe's name two ways is a "factual inconsistency.") Regarding your last post, it would have taken Memminger only a minute or two to check whether the UH editor was a he or a she, but if his piece was copyedited, should the copyeditor have checked this? If you are copyediting a piece that contains URLs, should the copyeditor be checking each URL?

I assume the copyeditor shouldn't spend to much time looking for factual errors. On the other hand, our editor sometimes recognizes errors of fact in my newsletter, for which I am very grateful!

Are copyeditors ever directed to check for factual errors, or particular kinds of factual errors under light, medium, and heavy editing?

19th Century British writing

I'm doing some reading for another class from Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor (first published in 1851) and I came across the following passage that just made my wannabe-editor head spin.

He brings the greengrocery, the fruit, the fish, the water-cresses, the shrimps, the pies and puddings, the sweetmeats, the pine-apples, the stationery, the linendrapery, and the jewellery, such as it is, to the very door of the working classes; indeed, the poor man's food and clothing are mainly supplied to him in this manner.

The use of so much alternate spelling and hyphenations was a little overwhelming, and I honestly don't think 'linendrapery' is a word. It wasn't in any dictionary that I could find.

So, if we are ever called to edit an historical text that includes words that don't exist any longer (or that the author possibly made up?), do you let it stand?