I just read a post that directed me to this Q&A to the NY Times Director of Copy Desks, which appears in today's NYT:
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A Vanishing Breed?
Q. I’m a managing editor at St. Martin’s Press in New York City. We are having more and more trouble finding literate freelance copy editors and proofreaders — people who know the basics of punctuation, spelling, grammar, something of what the English language can or can’t do, perhaps enough knowledge of a major European language to add an accent or make a past participle agree with a noun. Are newspapers experiencing the same problem, and if so, how are you dealing with it?
— Robert Cloud
A. You’re right, Mr. Cloud, it’s harder to find people who know what good copy editors need to know. You can argue that English usage has gone downhill, or you can argue that English is changing, but a better answer, I suspect, is plus ça change. My copy of “Elements of Style” has the notes I scribbled in sophomore year in high school, and E.B. White’s foreword, written only about 11 years previously. In it, he discusses his revisions to William Strunk’s original text, and talks about deleting “outdated” references or an “intricate rule of composition.” It’s quite possible that Professor Strunk would have told his erstwhile pupil that so doing would send the English language to hell.
Our language skills have been affected by how we use it, I think. Before radio, most information was conveyed in print. Since then, we get as much information by hearing it as by reading it, and that affects how we learn and use English. How else to explain the morphing of “home in on” to “hone in on,” now accepted by some dictionaries? I admit I can’t explain — or condone — horrors like “all shoe’s on sale,” but if it becomes common enough, dictionaries will start to accept it.
We deal with it by screening as carefully as we can. We test our applicants by having them edit stories, and looking at their use of grammar, punctuation, etc., as well as their ability to spot content problems and offer suggestions for repairs. We don't expect our editors to recite the rules of the nominative case or declination of nouns, but we do ask them to know and love the English language enough to protect it without smothering it, or being smothered by it.
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The response makes a point, but I doubt that plus ça change is the real reason that Mr. Cloud cannot find the type of copy editor he wants. The poster suggested that she knows many people who would meet his qualifications, but perhaps the press cannot find these people because their pay is low, and I would suspect this is true. Or perhaps they ask the freelancers to do too much for the rate.
I think that top-quality editors are working for higher paying legal/STM/academic publishers who seem to better support those of us who actually need to provide for a family and not just make a bit extra to add to a vacation fund. I do work for a number of NYC houses like St. Martin's Press (but not for them), and my clients like my work. Their rates are acceptable but not the tops. I enjoy the work and the people, so I keep on and try to ask for raises when appropriate. But these houses can't be my only work, or even the main work that I do.
The poster also said that she bets that they will be inundated with resumes now. :) We'll see what happens!
**********
A Vanishing Breed?
Q. I’m a managing editor at St. Martin’s Press in New York City. We are having more and more trouble finding literate freelance copy editors and proofreaders — people who know the basics of punctuation, spelling, grammar, something of what the English language can or can’t do, perhaps enough knowledge of a major European language to add an accent or make a past participle agree with a noun. Are newspapers experiencing the same problem, and if so, how are you dealing with it?
— Robert Cloud
A. You’re right, Mr. Cloud, it’s harder to find people who know what good copy editors need to know. You can argue that English usage has gone downhill, or you can argue that English is changing, but a better answer, I suspect, is plus ça change. My copy of “Elements of Style” has the notes I scribbled in sophomore year in high school, and E.B. White’s foreword, written only about 11 years previously. In it, he discusses his revisions to William Strunk’s original text, and talks about deleting “outdated” references or an “intricate rule of composition.” It’s quite possible that Professor Strunk would have told his erstwhile pupil that so doing would send the English language to hell.
Our language skills have been affected by how we use it, I think. Before radio, most information was conveyed in print. Since then, we get as much information by hearing it as by reading it, and that affects how we learn and use English. How else to explain the morphing of “home in on” to “hone in on,” now accepted by some dictionaries? I admit I can’t explain — or condone — horrors like “all shoe’s on sale,” but if it becomes common enough, dictionaries will start to accept it.
We deal with it by screening as carefully as we can. We test our applicants by having them edit stories, and looking at their use of grammar, punctuation, etc., as well as their ability to spot content problems and offer suggestions for repairs. We don't expect our editors to recite the rules of the nominative case or declination of nouns, but we do ask them to know and love the English language enough to protect it without smothering it, or being smothered by it.
*********
The response makes a point, but I doubt that plus ça change is the real reason that Mr. Cloud cannot find the type of copy editor he wants. The poster suggested that she knows many people who would meet his qualifications, but perhaps the press cannot find these people because their pay is low, and I would suspect this is true. Or perhaps they ask the freelancers to do too much for the rate.
I think that top-quality editors are working for higher paying legal/STM/academic publishers who seem to better support those of us who actually need to provide for a family and not just make a bit extra to add to a vacation fund. I do work for a number of NYC houses like St. Martin's Press (but not for them), and my clients like my work. Their rates are acceptable but not the tops. I enjoy the work and the people, so I keep on and try to ask for raises when appropriate. But these houses can't be my only work, or even the main work that I do.
The poster also said that she bets that they will be inundated with resumes now. :) We'll see what happens!
