Hobbled?
Do you have any deficiencies that you find dispiriting? Me too.
Writer, Editor, Helper
(The Subversive Copy Editor)
Writer, Editor, Helper
(The Subversive Copy Editor)
Carol Saller
Trigger-Happy
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.
Who Has Time to Read? It’s Book Fair Season
Over the weekend Chicago’s annual Printers Row Lit Fest happened, and this time I was free to make the most of it.
Dear Carol: E-book Indexes, Elusive Endnotes, and Wildcard Searches
Dear Carol, Everything has changed with the advent of e-books. As a new e-book creator, I’m confused about indexes. It would seem that the traditional (item name, page number) format wouldn’t work in an e-book, simply because of the lack of page numbers. However, I’m a huge fan of indexes. What’s the scoop Copy Editor?
“Logical Punctuation” and Quotation Marks: In Defense of CMOS
I must admit I was taken aback by David Marsh’s blog post last week at Mind Your Language. In “‘The British Style’? ‘The American Way?’ They Are Not So Different,” he explains that British style for punctuating quotations is not as “logical” as popularly thought.
Subversive Tech Tip #20, Part 2: Solutions
Last week, I asked how you would locate quotations within quotations in a Word document in order to style the inner quotes with single quotation marks. Your answers ranged from nonstarting to overthought to brilliant! Some of the answers worked…
Subversive Tech Tip #20, Part 1: Take the Challenge!
Looking over the work of a proofreader the other day, I saw that she had marked a place where the quotation marks for a quotation within a quotation were incorrect. Single quotation marks were needed for the inner quote, but double quotation marks appeared. This was my fault;
Dear Carol: Critiquing One’s Colleagues and Stalking a Good Copyeditor
Dear Carol: I am sometimes asked to mentor corporate communicators new to the field.
First Things First: Settling Down to Work
[Note: If this post looks familiar to some readers, it’s because it accidentally posted itself for an hour or so on March 30 at 4:35 a.m. CDT. I had written it ahead of time because I’m on the road this week. (And no, the irony of writing ahead of time about procrastination is not lost on me.) If you feel cheated, here’s an older post you might have missed.]
Pretty Apologies: For When You’re REALLY Wrong
Have you ever found yourself in an argument with a writer over an issue you’re rock-solid sure about, but because of your naturally generous and open-minded nature, you try to see the other point of view, and then it begins to dawn on you that the writer might actually have something of a point, and finally it hits you like that falling piano that you’re spectacularly wrong?