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Edit Sober:
79 tips for on-your-feet editing
Mark Allen ACES 2018: Chicago April 27, 2018
M A R K A L L E N E D I T O R I A LLook it up
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Edit Sober: 79 tips for on-your-feet editing Mark Allen ACES 2018: - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Edit Sober: 79 tips for on-your-feet editing Mark Allen ACES 2018: - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Edit Sober: 79 tips for on-your-feet editing Mark Allen ACES 2018: Chicago April 27, 2018 M A R K A L L E N E D I T O R I A L Look it up 2 M A R K A L L E N E D I T O R I A L Peek-a-boo Peek-aboo Peekaboo 4
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SLIDE 3 M A R K A L L E N E D I T O R I A L
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Peek-a-boo Peek-aboo Peekaboo
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Peekaboo
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Never ignore that little voice
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Quite a feat to eat
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The correct spelling of feet has a shoe size in it. If you were to win a Chicago- style hot-dog eating contest, that would be quite a feat.
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Edit on your feet.
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Palate Palette Pallet
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TELephone charging on a manTEL
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– Hogwarts School Song
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Learn until
- ur
brains all rot.
Illustration by Hogwarts Horror, Deviant Art
– JK Rowling
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Embrace your ignorance
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Slow down
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Always reread the first and last paragraphs.
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Think like a reader, not like an editor.
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Step away: You’ll see different things when you come back
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Change your viewpoint: bigger type, change the typestyle, print it out
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If what you’re editing takes forever to get to a point, look at the conclusion.
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Check the facts.
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“If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”
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Don’t take William Strunk and E.B. White too seriously. Advice is not edict.
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Omit needless words.
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Favor the active voice.
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Keep the good words.
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Don’t fear the passive voice.
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Edit out loud.
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Edit sober.
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“Sometimes I write drunk and revise sober,” he had said, “and sometimes I write sober and revise drunk. But you have to have both elements in creation — the Apollonian and the Dionysian, or spontaneity and restraint, emotion and discipline.”
– Peter DeVries, “Reuben, Reuben”
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Always check the quotations.
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Give your eyes a rest.
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Consider the pomodoro.
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Be wary of absolutes (though I’d never say never say never).
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Be a partner to your author.
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You are superior, you don’t have to prove it.
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Use online resources, but only the good ones.
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Keep a style sheet and use it for yourself as well as your author.
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Follow your cohorts.
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“When I'm trying to be most productive, I try to avoid that 15-minute hole we all get into where we're trying to figure out what's wrong with a sentence in a paragraph. I'll highlight in teal and move on. When I come back to it, I'm more likely to know what's wrong.”
– Aleksandra Sandstrom
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Resist, but accept that language changes.
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There are no rules.
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Rules are made to serve communication, not vice versa.
– James Harbeck
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Follow your style guide.
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Don’t always follow your style guide.
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“Rules and regulations such as these … cannot be endowed with the fixity
- f rock-ribbed law. They are meant
for the average case, and must be applied with a certain degree of elasticity.”
– Manual of Style, preface to the first edition, 1906
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“I have been often
- bliged to sacrifice
uniformity to custom.”
– Samuel Johnson, Introduction to the Dictionary, 1755
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Make peace with words.
– Karen Yin
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Be conscious of othering language.
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Once English accepts a word, treat it as an English word.
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“When teaching me how to drive, my dad said that the moment I feel comfortable behind the wheel is when I’ll be most dangerous. I think about that when editing—never stop paying attention and questioning.”
– Tricia Callahan
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There is no such thing as multitasking.
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Read backward.
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Eschew obfuscation.
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Don’t sweat the Oxford comma.
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If you are going to argue for the Oxford comma, at least use a real example:
“Among those interviewed [for a Merle Haggard documentary] were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall.”
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Limit exclamation points to exclamations.
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Errors, like deer crossing the road,
- ften travel in
pairs.
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Check for parallelism.
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“Know your peak productivity
- times. If you have a deadline
tomorrow, are you more effective at staying up late to finish or getting up early?”
– Melanie Padgett Powers
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Favor hyphens for compound modifiers — they might not seem necessary, but they rarely confuse.
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Think before cutting emphasis and intensifiers.
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It is good to consider rephrasing to avoid expletives.
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Consider rephrasing to avoid expletives.
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All of this is Greece: and dis is Crete
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Avoid the use of qualifiers.
– EB White, Rule No. 8
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Rather, very, little, pretty — these are the leeches that infest of the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. … We should all try to do a little better, we should all be very watchful of this rule, for it is a rather important one and we are pretty sure to violate it now and then.
– EB White, Rule No. 8
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Rather, very, little, pretty — these are the leeches that infest of the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. … We should all try to do a little better, we should all be very watchful of this rule, for it is a rather important one and we are pretty sure to violate it now and then.
– EB White, Rule No. 8
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Always check the math
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Always check the math
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Always check the math
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You can’t have a multiple of a thing less than that thing and still have that thing.
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"Amused" and "bemused" are not synonyms; "bemused" means confused. Or: A≠B, B=C, where A is amused, B is bemused and C is confused.
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People have always used “bemused” incorrectly. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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“Use programs to up efficiency and watch your back.”
– Heather Saunders
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Don’t fear the semicolon.
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If a thought is parenthetical, maybe it ought not to be in the paper; if it’s in the paper, maybe it ought not be parenthetical.
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If a reader must double back to the beginning of a sentence because you've sent the reader down the wrong path, fix the sentence.
– Benjamin Dryer
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As verbs, to "affect" is to influence, to "effect" is to bring
- about. "Effect" something and
take the credit.
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Don't stifle emphasis, but when “all” stands with “of,” one or both might be expendable: half of (all) the voters; all (of) my ducks.
Or “half the voters” and “my ducks.”
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When figuring a percentage change, think chronologically.
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Use an editing checklist.
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It's “an” before a vowel sound. Sound is key. Silent h: “an honor.” Sounded h: “a historic.”
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It’s aw, not awe when describing the cuteness of cats (as awe-inspiring as your cat may be).
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Check all contractions, but double-check it’s and you’re — those are the easiest to mistype.
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Work not for the person who signs your paycheck; work for the reader.
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Put your card out, literally and
- figuratively. You never know
where you’re going to make a connection, so never pass up an
- pportunity to tell people what
you do.
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“Be a good editor. The Universe needs more good editors, God knows.”
– Kurt Vonnegut
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“Every time you edit well, you bolster the profession.”
– Rob Reinalda, ACES 2018, Chicago