< PREVIOUS ] [ 1995 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
Ray Dangel won't like this column -- he doesn't like to see his name in print -- and that matters because he's the one who edits it. But he retires next week, which makes this a fit occasion to praise copy editors.
In the publishing trade, editors come in two forms. We
need different terms to distinguish between people who
decide what's printed
and people who work with text
to make it suitable for publication.
The book industry refers to acquisitions editors
and copy editors.
The acquisitions editors figure
out what should be published -- celebrity biographies,
celebrity how-tos, celebrity memoirs, celebrity novels --
and make arrangements for the raw material. The copy
editors take it from there.
The process is similar with magazines. A famous editor
like Helen Gurley Brown or Robert Shawn figures out what
sorts of things should be published and who might write
that stuff. The it's up to the copy editors to insure that
the material readable, to check the quotes and numbers --
in essence, to function as a surrogate for the eventual
readers, a surrogate who can call the author and ask
what did you mean by ...?
and how soon can you
fix it?
At newspapers, there are editors who make assignments and decide what should be printed. Then there are the editors who take what comes in and make it coherent and grammatical.
Although the small type at the end of the column
identifies me as a former newspaper editor,
I'm not
a good copy editor.
At a copy desk, I'm too impatient to check numbers in an
article to make sure they add up. If a proper name isn't in
the phone book, I seldom look elsewhere to make sure it's
spelled correctly. Apparently I read aloud to myself,
because homonyms like there
and their
or
ore
and oar
slip through easily.
The worst of it is that if a piece takes extensive work, I rewrite so that it ends up reading like my work, rather than the author's.
That is the hardest part of a copy editor's work -- to do the repairs and mending without performing a total overhaul.
Ray, however, is not too impatient to check numbers, or to call back on a proper name, or to catch my frequent homonym lapses. My work always reads like my work when he's done. It's just better -- smoother, faster, more polished -- after he goes over it. I cannot count the number of times he has prevented me from looking like an idiot in print.
Despite all those rumors of media conspiracies,
I
seldom talk to other Post columnists. Not that I have
anything against them, but our paths just don't cross that
often, especially when I'm 150 miles from Denver. But when
we do converse, I've never heard anything except praise for
Ray.
As far as I know, we all think he's wonderful, and we're all dreading his retirement next Monday.
Careful editing is a mark of respect for your readers.
It says, in effect, that you know the difference between
`flaunt' and `flout,' and we will not insult your
intelligence by confusing these words.
It says that a
reader's time is valuable, and should not be wasted on
superfluous verbage, or on untangling a sequence of events
that should have been presented in a coherent order.
So far, so good, but I despair for the future. Books
aren't put together overnight, the way that newspapers are,
and yet many books I read these days will confuse
its
and it's
or hear
and here.
Phenomena
will appear as a singular instead of a
plural, and penultimate
will be used to mean even
more than ultimate
when it means next to the last in
a series.
Before the penultimate item, there's the
antepenultimate,
which means next to the next to the
last.
This happens so often that Martha and I have named the
phenomenon computer spelling checker syndrome.
The
words are spelled correctly, but not used properly.
Another malady to watch for is scanner syndrome.
We watch for it in the local paper -- for instance, a
question mark will appear as a 7
or an m
as
rn.
Our scanner is fond of turning and
into
anal.
Scanners are cheaper than typists, and spell-checkers are cheaper than copy editors, and that trend will continue. Human-edited text, something we all once took for granted, may become an expensive rarity, like human bank tellers and human telephone operators.
Then again, some thoughtful handwork seems to be enjoying a resurgence -- look at the explosion of microbreweries, or how so many cabinetmakers find a livelihood even in a town as small as Salida.
People do care about quality, even in writing. One of the biggest complaints about all the information on the Internet is that it nobody bothers to edit it -- to select what might matter, and put it in readable form, and check the reliability of the information.
So, I'm no prophet, and I have no idea what will happen. But I am grateful that for the past 10 years, my work here has passed through skillful and caring hands.
Thanks, Ray.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 1995 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >