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Topic: Copy ed quirks
| Author | Message |
| clare04 | Posted – 6/6/2006 3:34:20 PM | show profile What's the best way to work with copy editors from a writer's stance ? I have a writing job that puts me on the receiving end of a lot of copy issues. Any thoughts or tips or anecdotes ? |
| stet.this | Posted – 6/9/2006 8:42:18 AM | show profile | email poster That's a difficult question to answer. I've been a copy editor for 11 years (and a writer for equally as long), so I've felt the frustration from both sides. The only thing worse than an overzealous copy editor is a undereducated writer (and the reverse is also true). ;) Do you feel like the CEs are making unnecessary changes? Or are they unpleasant, rigid people in general? It's hard to tell from your message. If you'd like to ask specific questions, feel free to email me. I'd like to help. |
| Hannah | Posted – 6/9/2006 9:07:56 AM | show profile Hi, Clare. I was once the associate editor/copy editor at a niche magazine with a senior staff built of industry experts. Very few of the magazine's contributors and senior editors had any real journalism experience, and it was my job to clean up their mumbo-jumbo for the general reader. (I'm not implying YOUR work is mumbo-jumbo, of course.) As you can imagine, I had a number of early clashes with writers who couldn't understand why I had eliminated their dangling modifiers or fashioned their pieces with ledes. They hated my adherence to "obscure" conventions of English, while I fumed at their illiteracy. After a while, though, we realized we all had the same goal: to make the articles compelling and useful to the magazine's audience. I developed a genuine respect for the writers' technical knowledge, and they let me do my thing when it came to shaping their presentation. Turned out to be a pretty peaceful arrangement. |
| Chilly | Posted – 6/9/2006 10:01:50 AM | show profile Hi Clare, I am a writer-turned-copy editor (and still writing) so I'd be happy to answer any specific questions you have. One bit of advice I can offer from both sides of the fence is, assume you are both on the same side. You both want to make the story as good as it can be. When a copy editor questions you, don't be defensive -- it's not a personal attack. If you don't like their changes or "fixes," suggest something better, or at least something else. If you don't understand why they're making certain changes, ask. If the same issues keep coming up again and again in your copy, that will tend to make the copy editors a bit grumpy. A friendly phone manner can go a long way, also. |
| MuseInk | Posted – 6/9/2006 1:25:48 PM | show profile Buy and read the style guide the publication uses. Books generally stick with Chicago. Canadian pubs (books & mags) have persnickety differences, too. If you write for Canadians, it might be worth your while to pick up and Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Don't trust your spell checker: it sucks. |
| clare04 | Posted – 6/9/2006 2:01:42 PM | show profile style gurus and such !! Tremendous advice from every poster - Thanks. I feel encouraged. I have worked as a copy editor too so I'm getting a taste of it from the other side. Thank you stet, I will definitely email you. Re. interesting points include: **Style Guide - they don't have one here. The C E seems to be the walking style guru. They use the industry bible(s) to some extent but yes to everyone who picked up that I feel arbitrary changes and issues are created out of the nether nether well and truly. There is a lot of this is the way we do it. With no style guide, the newbie is at a major disadvantage !! As an ordinary reporter or whatever I've had plenty of copy editor-writer exchanges and I have done a lot of copy editing in my time, too. I know all about the role and how it differs from place to place. So I am definitely not a diva about it, I don't care when it - my work - gets changed on a line by line basis. For a substantive change or semantic change, I need some explanation. Bottom line is editors have always pretty much liked my work except on a couple of random freelance assignments. I mean my copy is pretty clean on the copy editor level. Leaving aside all the other issues that could come up with an editor and a writer about story angle or relevance or length. I'm not used to someone being all over every stroke of the key. I know as a mid career professional it's way overkill. Its not "bad" and I'm not really having issues but more like due to nature of the material, shortage of copy editor the roles of the writers are that they have to copy edit to numerous numerous specifications. My managing ed is cool and I've been bringing him in on issues since the other day which helps for final call. **Technical info : re >>>>>>>>I developed a genuine respect for the writers' technical knowledge, and they let me do my thing when it came to shaping their presentation. |
| clare04 | Posted – 6/9/2006 2:07:15 PM | show profile ... **Technical info : re >>>>>>>>I developed a genuine respect for the writers' technical knowledge, and they let me do my thing when it came to shaping their presentation. Meant to say here under this poster's comment, I've been in this position too, and felt the exact same way. Ended up learning a lot about the area myself. But here, I feel like I know something and also here, the difference is weighted the other way - the CE touts a higher knowledge base from lots of pure education above the writers. But my feeling is, there are many perspectives to an end product - not just the copy one. |
