An Editor's Curse
What is the one thing editors can't seem to stop doing? That's right. Not even 1 guess needed.
We can't seem to stop seeing everything through an editor's glasses. Well, that's true for me, at any rate. Can't speak for all editors, I s'pose. :-)
Case in point:
I actually get home at a relatively decent hour and decide I'm going to read one of the tons of books I've bought since January and haven't even touched. We're talking literally hundreds of books that I have in my grubby possession that have waited ever so patiently.... *weeping*
So, I'm going to do the unheard of thing called -- gasp! -- leisure reading. I select a book at random, open it up and BAM! right there, right THERE is a sentence that needs serious punctuation help, because I had to read it twice to make sense of it.
I go along, and WHAP! right in my face, staring defiantly at me, is another sentence that has unparallel construction! The, the, the horror!! :-O
Bravely, I forge forward, whimpers falling into the air around me. A few paragraphs go by without anything untoward. I relax. Take a sip of my tea. Kick up my feet and swing 'em back and forth. Ahhhh, this is the life!
Until --
ACK!!! Several run-on sentences...in 1 (count 'em! 1!) paragraph that aren't even in logical sequence!!
*collapses in a heap*
I moan and I groan and I want to reach right out to strangle the editor who let these things pass...all within the space of TWO pages!! AUGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
Okay, so you think I'm a freak because I had to stop reading. And you'd be right, because, quite frankly, I cringe when I see these things on the printed page or the electronic document. No matter how good a story is, typos and grammatical mistakes will always distract me. Just call me the ADHD editor. In fact, I had planned a pet peeves post soon, and right up there with rude people and public nose-pickers are things that should have been readily caught during the editing process but somehow slide through...like spelling errors.
FAUGH!
posted by Cheshire Cat @ 9/15/2005 06:47:00 pm
8 Commas spliced
8 Comments:
You aren't the only one. I don't consider myself all that great with the "editing" stuff. You could testify to that since you are the one that gets to fix my boo boos. BUT, I have been noticing a LOT of simple editing mistakes in books lately. I don't think it's just that I catch them more from working with you; I think there is a serious problem with editing in this industry. I've read several books (ebooks and print) that have glaring issues. I read one by my favorite author recently, and it was all I could do to keep reading it. I sat there wondering to myself, ok so did she get so big time that the editors are scared of her and won't correct her? We aren't talking just sentence structure here; we are talking major head hopping. I think she even had the dogs pov *LOL*....ok not that bad, but she did hop to minor characters right in the middle of the hero's or heroines pov. And we aren't talking about 3 paragraphs here or there during a love scene. We are talking every other sentence or so. It was annoying as all get out. So like you I wonder what is going on with the editing lately????
I think there are a few reasons. One is lazy editing. Another is that people just don't pay much attention to these things in school or on their own and they end up not having a good grasp of grammar, spelling, and such. Then there's things that simply fall through because of time or whatnot. But spelling errors or the wrong use of words just stop me in my tracks and I lose entire storylines, lol. Yeah, I'm a freak and a geek! lol.
To tell you the truth as a copy editor I tend to slip up! I noticed some simple mistakes in books ,and online recently.
I would say we have to double if not triple edit our work.
For a copy editor, any suggestions to all of us out there? What tips or guide books are best; for those grammar realated mistakes?
Hi!
Thanks for responding to my post about the hazards of being an editor. :-D May I inquire how you found my blog? :-)
Regarding your question about what we can do to minimize mistakes in our work -- quite honestly, we are all human (okay, so I'm really a freak from an alternate universe, but we won't get into that). Errors will occur, things will be missed, and heads will roll. That's reality, but we can try to lower the odds of these things.
I work in advertising in my day job, so believe me when I say I understand what a pressure cooker is and what time-sensitive means. And I definitely know what the consequences are when a client spends thousands of dollars on a project, potentially hundreds of thousands or millions out of their bank accounts, to print something only to find a glaring typo or missing words. It gets very ugly very quickly.
Your suggestion about double and/or triple checking work is a good one, but this depends on the length of a job, whether it is copy intensive, the type of information it consists of, and whether you are under a tight deadline. In many instances, you will have the time to carefully look over your work; at other times, you won't be able to go back and review. But aside from the client or financial aspects, which can be quite intimidating, there should be some matter of pride in what we turn out, right? After all, it's our name in the byline or our signature that okays a piece.
In my opinion, the one thing that is probably the most important, even more than understanding basic grammatical rules (shocking, I know) is to make sure we sit back and really evaluate what it is we are looking at, to think about what's sitting in front of us. In these days of crazy deadlines, irrational clients, and full-speed-ahead-to-a-red-light mentality, carving out time might seem an impossibility, but the fact of the matter is, we have to make the effort.
Most of the errors that I've seen -- and committed -- were simple mistakes that had the editor (or I) simply stopped to really read the job would have caught very easily. The problem, of course, is that when a person's got a ton of jobs and people breathing down their neck, or when someone's really tired, there will be a tendency to rush things. The job ends up being skimmed or simply slugged, and that's when errors are missed.
What it boils down to, I guess, is to try to manage our time the most efficiently so that we can do a good job and focus on what we read and write. Part of that is means we must also have a reasonable assessment of how long it will take to complete our portion of the project. For you, it might be writing copy and researching data. How long do you think it will take you to write so and so? How much time have you been allotted? Will you need to do additional research? Is the information readily accessible? What is the absolute deadline you have to get your copy in for it to make press?
For me, it's editing copy, making sure it conforms to a specific client's style, that the material as presented is correct and verifiable, etc. Is the information dense, complicated? When is the job going out to the client? Which jobs are priority? When must the job be released?
There will always be outside factors we won't be able to control, but some of managing our time is to also give our clients and coworkers reasonable expectations and to push back if it's necessary. Better a job well done than one half cooked.
As to grammar related issues: almost any standard English grammar book will do, but like dictionaries, they only work if they're used. I confess the whole lie/lay verb tenses always baffle me. I must have looked these two up at least a half billion times and I still can't get them straight, but I do look them up. Every time.
If you're interested in some good grammar books, toward the bottom of my blog's sidebar, I've got a list of them under "Books on Writing, Mechanics, etc." I've read about half these books, and the other half were recommended.
I hope some of this rambling made sense; if not, be sure to post again to chew me out. :-D
Hi Olivia, how are you? Thank you for taking out the time to respond back to me. I really, really enjoyed your reply; and you are right on the marker in so many ways. It is a difficult and demanding task sometimes to edit twice, tree times even. My problem I have is changing my writing style to fit the clients needs. At times it seems so daunting, you have to go inside the box and dig out that persona that just isn't you.
Although I have only been on the block for 5 years, I found myself baffled at and forgetful when it comes to mechanical writing, and grammar ; butI do ad copy well. I can honestly say I have to have my own work edited at times but I want to be a profound copy editor, and I would love to improve myself.
I find I often wonder into other writers styles to get a sense of form for examples, do most of us start from scratch or from an implanted sample?
I found your blog my mere chance, when I was looking at updated blogs. It was great luck if you ask me; you are the guru!!!
You're most welcome, but you give me too much credit. A guru? Me? Not by a long shot. :-) I've worked in advertising for about 4 years, the same length of my professional editing career, but I've been informally editing pretty much my entire life. I was that obnoxious person whose friends always gave her papers and essays, etc, to proofread and correct, lol.
By the way, how should I address you? :0)
I can relate only peripherally regarding copywriting to fit clients' requests (aka demands, lol), but I recognize that it is definitely a difficult process, especially when they ask for copy that seem intuitively inaccurate or reads awkwardly. And when it appears diametrically opposed to what you believe... well, all I can say is, I have the easier job by far. So, kudos to you, ma'am! :-D
Grammar and mechanics are certainly important, but I have to tell you that I think the world of advertising is a very strange and twisty one. From my experience, ad copy is meant to do one thing primarily, and that is to sell whatever product, message, or idea the client wants. Bearing that in mind, the rules of grammar and mechanics frequently don't apply and tend to go by the wayside.
Ad copy focuses on catching the attention of an audience in the most effective and yet concise way, which means that English language structure, complex as it is, is used more in writing the nitty gritty details than anything and, even then, a client's marketing and/or legal folk will scrutinize and tweak until you might swear you were reading an alien text. I can't begin to share the examples of unintelligible or obscure copy we have been provided, lol. I'm certain you've seen more than your share, too.
It's wonderful that you continue to seek ways to improve not only your writing, but also your understanding of the "mundane" grammar and mechanics. In this, you've already proven yourself to be ahead of the pack. I think people tend to get jaded in this business, and the fact that you have shown yourself to be interested in always learning more means that you are already a profound copy editor and person. :0)
Do most writers start from scratch or do they work from an implanted sample? I would say it's likely a combination of both. As with everything, it depends on the situation and what it is that the client is asking for. Sometimes ad copy is simply reworking an existing idea or piece so that it becomes a similar but "fresh" concept. Other times, it's setting aside what has gone before to create a novel idea, something that will take off and grab people because it's a new approach.
Believe me, I have the utmost respect for the sheer creativity and brilliance copy writers have. *a tip of my hat*
Oh I have to jump in on something that was said. First of all, don't listen to O about not being a guru...she's modest. As one of her authors, I can honestly say she's very very good at what she does. Which leads me to my point.
Olivia is wonderful at not changing a writers voice. I never have to worry about it not sounding like me. Which is extremely important. It's one of the things that impresses me most about her.
Another thing, as an author I expect my editor to pick up on holes in my plot. Now granted, I try my hardest to make sure there are no holes, but as O said, no ones perfect. Sometimes in an effort not to overexplain, I assume the reader "knows" what I do. Which we all know isn't the case. A good editor will pick up on those holes, even though they have the same knowledge of the story as the author.
Another very very very important quality, is tact. A good editor can tell you, "Hey this isn't working." Without crushing you and making you a) hate your editor or b) want to throw in the towel and never write again.
I have to say, even if I sound like a suck up...Olivia is very good at all these things I've mentioned.
Hope ya'll don't mind getting an author's pov. :) And as always, ignore my grammer mistakes, I didn't send this to my editor before posting ;)
Well, geez, woman!
Stop that! My head's already wobbling on its thick stem of a neck. You keep up with the nice words and pretty soon the planet will tilt from the weight of the swollen brain. :-D
My sincere thanks to you, Jeigh, but you're totally biased. And a damned fine author. So there! :-D
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