(The Subversive Copy Editor)
(The Subversive Copy Editor)
Last year I had a problem with ants in my kitchen, but at the hardware store there were several different kinds of poison and each package said, “Will kill this kind of ant, but not that kind.” So I went back home to figure out what kind I had.
If you’re new to copyediting, consider these snippets of advice.
I remember when my first son was little and I would be listening to music, and John would confound me by humming a different tune while he played at my feet. Maybe the ability to literally “tune out” so profoundly…
Copyeditors have a reputation. We’re conscientious and task-oriented. We like our little routines. We like things tidy. That’s what’s good about us—it’s why we’re useful. We are valued for our tolerance for tedium and our willingness to plug away till…
If you write or copyedit in Microsoft Word, have you thought about using color as a tool? Here are two ways I use color in editing and word-processing.
Two popular types of bad copyediting are (1) editing that didn’t need doing in the first place, and (2) needed editing that didn’t get done. Both types can be accomplished with or without the aid of a computer, but there…
Copyeditors who are allowed to edit on paper are dwindling in number, but judging from my mail, copyeditors who would like to are legion. I don’t get it.
My writing group met the other night for our monthly critiquing love- and slugfest. We know each other well enough to be pretty brutal and frank, and that’s good, because . . .
Recently John McIntyre blogged at the Baltimore Sun about “pedagogical malpractice,” inviting readers to submit stories of English teachers run amuck. I read them with mixed feelings of horror and glee. After all, English teachers, not unlike copyeditors, are an easy target.
Not long ago I watched over a friend’s shoulder as she made corrections to a document in MS Word, lumbering along in slow motion with her mouse . . .