(The Subversive Copy Editor)
(The Subversive Copy Editor)
Those of you who use social media are used to seeing comments from sticklers who object to any deviation from the grammar rules they learned. The following sentences would not likely pass their inspection. Can you tell why?
Sentence 1. At the donut shop she had trouble getting her order out.
Sentence 2. Hopefully, none of the donuts are gone.
Sentence 3. But etiquette forced me to share the donuts.
Writers and editors are used to keeping reference books close at hand or bookmarked online. Even so, there are times we’re simply at a loss. How do you find a grammar or usage rule when you don’t know what it’s…
In writing and editing, consistency is assumed to be a good thing. A publication looks unprofessional when a name is spelled more than one way, a number is only sometimes spelled out, or a subheading doesn’t reflect its level of importance. Good editors spend a great deal of their time keeping track of such details in order to impose consistency. But at some level, consistency should cease to be a goal. First . . .
In 2013, after a few years of writing essays here for copyeditors and writers, I stopped posting—mainly out of a fear of repeating myself. You were so good to keep coming back! I didn’t want to bore you. Meanwhile,
You might think you can learn to copyedit by taking a class, but I promise, even if your class does a great job of exposing you to a style manual and the general practices of editing, it can only scratch the surface. To learn well, you must . . .
Everyone has at least one friend, relative, or colleague who is not yet competent in even the most basic computer tasks: creating a document, e-mailing, browsing online.
[Continue reading]
Thank you so much, fellow confessors! It was fun, therapeutic, and a little painful reading about your gaffes and lapses. Many of them sound familiar: spelling-check errors, overlooked homophones, misguided global corrections, and those goofs that are simply too huge to catch. Maybe worst of all are the ones we introduce ourselves in a moment of mental vacation.
Here in Chicago we have to work at celebrating the advent of spring. Even typing in my subzero office is challenging—thank god for fingerless gloves. So my idea is this: in the spirit of spring cleaning, since there’s no way I’m throwing my mattresses out in the snow, let’s air our consciences instead. Let’s confess our copyediting sins! I’ll stop at three. (Not that I have more than that . . .)
When my office hires at the entry level, there’s a proofreading and copyediting test, and for various reasons we give the test in person and on paper: It levels the playing field by eliminating access to e-mail and online sources. It shows us how a person will mark up copy on the job (a frequent chore for the new kid). It isolates proofing and editing skills from word-processing skills. Results vary.
Just a short note today to let you know of an opportunity to have free online access to the new Dictionary of American Regional English in exchange for your help in vetting it—if you qualify, that is! For writers and…