Long ago and far away, I worked for a copy chief who introduced me to the editorial concept of gratuitous meddling. I would like to be able to say that she was a wise and patient master imparting wisdom to the neophyte. But in fact she was a gratuitous meddler herself and was loathed by the copyediting pool. “Gratuitous meddling” was a favorite phrase of my workmates, who used it frequently in their ridicule.
I latched onto the phrase then, and decades later it still springs to mind when I read complaints from writer victims. A copyeditor will change “in no wise” to “in no way.” Or “most important” to “most importantly.” Or “stanched” to “staunched.” She’ll break an endnote of three citations into three separate notes and change two hundred instances of Sophokles to Sophocles in a text written by a distinguished professor of Greek literature.
Can the mere possession of a red pencil make someone so trigger-happy she loses all restraint?
H. G. Wells famously quipped that “no passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else’s draft,” and there’s something in that. Once the tracking is turned on, you’re itching to leave some tracks. Competent prose can be downright irritating when you’re young and energetic and on a mission to whip the literary world into shape. Come on, come on, you think—surely I know something this writer doesn’t! Sure you do. But it isn’t that. Or that. Or that.
You sit with a dictionary and search engine close at hand. Then why oh why aren’t they your weapons of choice? If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times:
First, do no harm.
Look it up.
And when in doubt, keep your hands in the air.
_____
Photo by Let Ideas Compete
“Gratuitous meddling” is a good phrase. I wholly agree with the idea that editors should first “do no harm”: it’s the typographic oath!
Humility and experience lead an editor inevitably to a position of minimal interference (unless otherwise stipulated). Sometimes keeping my hands in the air isn’t enough, though, and I have to sit on them.
Coincidentally, I was chatting earlier today about how red pens may prime us to be more critical. I wrote about this phenomenon here: http://stancarey.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/the-red-pen-effect/
I loved this line: “Once the tracking is turned on, you’re itching to leave some tracks.” And immediately thought of the line you used at the end of the article: “Do no harm.”
I believe if we can keep that latter thought uppermost, the itch won’t be as intense.
Thanks for the reminder that “gratuitous [almost anything]” is not a good thing.
Thanks for a good reminder. Long ago and far away, I worked with a wise and patient copy chief who would not accept changes that couldn’t be explained succinctly and well. (He refused to accept “it just reads better” edits, as writers will!)
Great reminder! I’ve had many discussions about the strong impulse to change copy, even when there’s nothing “wrong” with it. (Charles, I love your colleague’s policy!) I think a big part of that impulse stems from the desire to feel you’ve put your stamp on a work, that you’ve “done something” tangible.
I write and edit, so I’ve seen that play out from both angles. But it’s so important to place the editorial process ahead of your itch to show *your* work. Editors of all types are there to offer checkpoints to ensure that the writing is in its best shape. Letting good work (and the author’s voice) stand is just as important as making corrections.
Henri Rousseau was so excited (according to historian Yann Le Pichon) by what he saw at the 1907 Cezanne retrospective that he ran from painting to painting, and then exclaimed to his companion, “You know, I could finish them all!’
Yes! It took me too long to learn this. The key is remembering that it’s not YOUR name on the byline.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington on Thursday. Leon Neal/Getty Images
CNN
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the White House on Thursday could be his final chance to convince a receptive American president of his country’s war aims.
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The precise details of the “victory plan” Zelensky plans to present in separate meetings to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are unknown, having been closely held until they are presented to the American leaders.
But according to people briefed on its broad contours, the plan reflects the Ukrainian leader’s urgent appeals for more immediate help countering Russia’s invasion. Zelensky is also poised to push for long-term security guarantees that could withstand changes in American leadership ahead of what is widely expected to be a close presidential election between Harris and former President Donald Trump.
The plan, people familiar with it said, acts as Zelensky’s response to growing war weariness even among his staunchest of western allies. It will make the case that Ukraine can still win — and does not need to cede Russian-seized territory for the fighting to end — if enough assistance is rushed in.
That includes again asking permission to fire Western provided long-range weapons deeper into Russian territory, a line Biden once was loathe to cross but which he’s recently appeared more open to as he has come under growing pressure to relent.
Even if Biden decides to allow the long-range fires, it’s unclear whether the change in policy would be announced publicly.
Biden is usually apt to take his time making decisions about providing Ukraine new capabilities. But with November’s election potentially portending a major change in American approach to the war if Trump were to win, Ukrainian officials — and many American ones — believe there is little time to waste.
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Trump has claimed he will be able to “settle” the war upon taking office and has suggested he’ll end US support for Kyiv’s war effort.
“Those cities are gone, they’re gone, and we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refused to make a deal, Zelensky. There was no deal that he could have made that wouldn’t have been better than the situation you have right now. You have a country that has been obliterated, not possible to be rebuilt,” Trump said during a campaign speech in Mint Hill, North Carolina, on Wednesday.
Comments like those have lent new weight to Thursday’s Oval Office talks, according to American and European officials, who have described an imperative to surge assistance to Ukraine while Biden is still in office.
As part of Zelensky’s visit, the US is expected to announce a major new security package, thought it will likely delay the shipping of the equipment due to inventory shortages, CNN previously reported according to two US officials. On Wednesday, the US announced a package of $375 million.
The president previewed Zelensky’s visit to the White House a day beforehand, declaring on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly his administration was “determined to ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to prevail in fight for survival.”
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“Tomorrow, I will announce a series of actions to accelerate support for Ukraine’s military – but we know Ukraine’s future victory is about more than what happens on the battlefield, it’s also about what Ukrainians do make the most of a free and independent future, which so many have sacrificed so much for,” he said.
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