You’ve Got the Power: For Good or Evil
Time and again, copyeditors ask me questions that leave me scratching my head. The question always amounts to something like this: “If I follow the rule, nonsense and chaos will result. What should I do?”
Writer, Editor, Helper
(The Subversive Copy Editor)
Writer, Editor, Helper
(The Subversive Copy Editor)
Category Sticklers
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.
Rules Are Not Shoes: Finding the Fit
Over at the Q&A, we get a lot of questions from writers and editors who have searched through the style manual and can’t find exactly the same phrase/citation/rule that they’re agonizing over. They’ve found the section that treats ABC and…
“Leave My Prose Alone”: The Resistant Writer
“Please tell the copyeditor to leave my prose alone.” That’s an actual author request I encountered in a newly arrived manuscript. I looked at the first few pages. The content was complex, phrasing idiosyncratic, punctuation random. A more mature and…
The “Iliad” on an e-Reader? Oh, the Humanity!
For the last month I’ve been copyediting a second edition of Richmond Lattimore’s translation of Homer’s Iliad. War and battles and great hulking, stalking gods and heroes . . .
True Crime in Copyediting
In a lather recently over copyeditors who waste time searching for rules that don’t exist, I failed to acknowledge something important in defense of the offenders . . .
Copyediting Quiz, Part 2: First Do No Harm
Yesterday I posted these sentences for your scrutiny, challenging you to find errors in style and usage. Today I’ll tell you why some popular answers are wrong.* 1. If you want to lager beer, you’ll need a reliable refrigerator. Lager…
Copyediting Quiz, Part 1
I’ve been reviewing copyediting tests lately, and I’m feeling mentorly. So just for fun, I have a little quiz for you. The sentences below are snippets from texts. How many errors in style or usage can you find in them?…
Loose the Chains! The Rules Don’t Always Bind
At the online Q&A, the Chicago Manual of Style often hears from writers and editors who are frustrated that they can’t find a rule about something. “I’ve searched everywhere!” they say, like kids looking for their shoes. Never mind that…
Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badges
Recently commenters in this space scolded me for writing the phrase “smarter than me,” saying, in one case, “There is no reason to dumb down the language for conversation. When we speak correctly, we reinforce the proper use of the…