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Editorium Update 2008/08/28: Noli Turbare Commae Meos
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The Editorium
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Aug 28, 2008 10:57 PDT
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EDITORIUM UPDATE
Tips for Publishing Professionals Using Microsoft Word
August 28, 2008
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CONTENTS
Feature Article: Noli Turbare Commae Meos
Readers Write: More on "What Is Proofreading?"
Resources:
Microsoft Word for Publishing Professionals
FreeRice
_____________________________________________________
WOW! It's a book! *My* book!
Microsoft Word for Publishing Professionals: Power-Packed Tips for
Editors, Typesetters, Proofreaders, and Indexers, by Jack M. Lyon.
I can't believe it's finally done! And furthermore, it's on sale at
Amazon, so get it (cheap) while you can!
http://tinyurl.com/6zrj44
7 by 10 inches, 632 pages, perfect bound--this baby is *huge* and just
packed with good stuff, nicely organized for easy reference. Please
check it out--and tell your friends. Yes, really! Thanks!
_____________________________________________________
And there's more! I'll be giving the keynote speech--and teaching a
four-hour workshop on working with Word--at Communication Central's
conference in Rochester, New York, on September 26 and 27. You can sign
up here:
http://www.communication-central.com/
I'd *love* to see you there!
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Noli Turbare Commae Meos
By Jack M. Lyon
When the Romans conquered the city of Syracuse in 212 BCE, the Roman
general Marcus Claudius Marcellus ordered his soldiers to spare the
famous mathematician Archimedes. When they entered his house, one of
them asked who he was. According to legend, Archimedes was so engrossed
in the circles he had drawn that he simply replied, "Noli turbare
circulos meos!" ("Don't disturb my circles!") Despite orders, one of the
soldiers immediately cut him down.
As an author, I say to any of my future editors, "Noli turbare commae
meos!" ("Don't disturb my commas!") (Ironically, I hope someone who
actually understands Latin will correct that if I have it wrong.)
As an editor (having worked on more than 300 books), I've mellowed over
the years. I'm more inclined to let authors do things the way they want
(as long as they're communicating clearly) rather than trying to impose
on them my own ideas of syntax and style. I've come to believe that,
like those in the medical profession, editors should follow the dictum
"First, do no harm":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primum_non_nocere
In other words, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I understand that some
companies *require* that a "house style" be imposed on a book or
article, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm concerned about
making editorial changes simply because "that's what Chicago says" or
"that's not how I would do it."
I'm reminded of a long discussion about commas at the publishing house
where I used to work. Unfortunately, I don't remember the specific
example we were discussing, but we finally all realized that whether a
particular comma should stay or go came down to a matter of *meaning,*
and that's the guide I've tried to follow ever since.
Here's an example:
I like ice cream, too.
Should the comma be included or not? It depends on what the author
means.
If the comma is included--
I like ice cream, too.
--then (to me, at least) the meaning is "I like ice cream in addition to
bananas." ("I like bananas; I like ice cream, too.")
But if the comma is not included--
I like ice cream too.
--then the meaning is "I (along with Kari) like ice cream." ("Kari likes
ice cream; I like ice cream too.")
In other words, it's not a matter of following some rule about
punctuation; it's about ensuring the clarity of what the author is
trying to say.
In an example posted on Copyediting-L (http://www.copyediting-l.info/)--
Though we use the words interchangeably, a subject is a broad field of
study, whereas a topic is a specific area within that field.
--I wouldn't change a thing. Removing the second comma actually
decreases the clarity, in my opinion.
But another posted example is clearer without a comma between the
independent clauses:
If the appearance is highly smeared over the length of the gel,
degradation has most probably occurred and the sample will have to be
discarded.
Quite a few years ago, I had the interesting experience of editing a
big-name science fiction writer. Before I began, he warned me that he
knew what he was doing (which he did) and that I shouldn't try to fix
what wasn't broken. Thinking I was quite the hotshot editor, I did
pretty much what I wanted, and at the galley stage there was much
weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth--by me. I'd concentrated on what
I thought were the rules; he was concerned with meaning and--to my
surprise--with *sound,* which is another factor many editors probably
don't think about, but which can be really important in fiction.
H. G. Wells wrote, "No passion in the world is equal to the passion to
alter someone else's draft." But the passion must often be resisted.
http://www.lulu.com/browse/preview.php?fCID=1913171
Editing and proofreading aren't about rules; they're about meaning and
clarity and communication. If my commas are getting in the way of those
things, please fix them. And if they're not . . . well, you get the
idea.
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READERS WRITE
After reading the past two articles about "What Is Proofreading?" more
readers chimed in.
Gretchen wrote:
Some proofreaders change "like" to "similar to."
This is one of my pet peeves. Some people seem to think that if you have
a dangler, for example, "Like ducks, ponds are essential for geese,"
then simply changing "like" to "similar to" will solve the problem.
-------------------------------------------
Betty Fisher wrote:
WHAT ARE PROOFREADERS?
In my experience, which ranges from hot-metal type, old-fashioned
galleys, and two proofreaders through cold type and then computer type,
proofreaders now are checking for the same things proofreaders have
always looked for--errors of all kinds (typos, wrong typefaces, editor's
mistakes, and so on). Who the proofreaders *are* is what has changed.
Now the editors are the first-line proofreaders. Spell-check helps a
lot. But several sets of eyes are still important.
WHAT DO PROOFREADERS DO?
On the manuscript being prepared as final copy (in my case I send a
coded manuscript to my typesetter who turns it into type), the
proofreaders look for typos, grammatical slips, wrong codes, and the
like. On the final proof from the typesetter we look for:
* typos
* grammatical errors
* codes that did not translate correctly
* transliteration marks that did not translate correctly (being a Baha'i
magazine, we have a lot of Persian and Arabic words)
* footnote numbers in the text that don't match the actual footnotes
* running heads
* running feet
* spacing problems in the layout
* exceedingly loose or tight lines.
Many thanks to Gretchen and Betty! If you have questions, hints, or
comments you'd like to share, please send an email message here:
mailto:edi-@editorium.com
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RESOURCES
Microsoft Word for Publishing Professionals: Power-Packed Tips for
Editors, Typesetters, Proofreaders, and Indexers, by Jack M. Lyon.
http://tinyurl.com/6djk5r
Still working the hard way? Make your life easier with this compilation
of articles from Editorium Update, a nitty-gritty electronic newsletter
for publishing professionals. Here's the scoop on Microsoft Word's
macros, styles, templates, wildcards, customization features, and much,
much more. Full of specific, step-by-step examples that will take you
far beyond the basics, this is a rich and detailed guide for anyone who
wants to master Microsoft Word.
"Some of the sharpest, most useful tidbits about Microsoft Word I've
ever seen. Jack Lyon does a superb job of presenting expert-level
instruction at a level almost any Word user can manage." --Dan A.
Wilson, The Editor's Desktop
"This is not your usual 'Ctrl+B will make characters bold' stuff. This
is serious information for people who regularly use Word to edit serious
material." --Tom Anderson, "Word Help for Professional Editors," Sacra
Blue.
"Jack Lyon is quite simply the Microsoft Word Jedi Master: Obi-Jack. He
automates tasks in Word that would be hard to do 'by hand'--and in some
cases, just flat out wouldn't be possible to do. If you use Word to do
your job, like me, and have wished that Word 'could only do this or only
do that' . . . check it out." --Doug Clapp, PocketPCPress
http://tinyurl.com/6djk5r
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Feed the hungry and test your vocabulary--everybody wins! My high score
is 47. What's yours?
http://www.freerice.org
If you'd like to share a resource that others might find useful:
mailto:resou-@editorium.com
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HELP WANTED
If you need help with Word, there are actually lots of places to go.
Some of the best include:
Allen Wyatt's WordTips:
http://WordTips.VitalNews.com
The Word-PC List:
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/word-pc.html
The McEdit list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/McEdit/
Microsoft's Word discussion groups:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/FlyoutOverview.mspx#13
(Look in the lower right of the page.)
The Word MVP site:
http://word.mvps.org/
Woody's Lounge:
http://www.wopr.com/cgi-bin/w3t/postlist.pl?Cat=&Board=wrd
But if you can't find what you need in those places, send your question
here:
mailto:he-@editorium.com
I'll put your question in the newsletter to see if some astute reader
knows the answer.
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Editorium Update (ISSN 1534-1283) is published by:
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