I’m blogging today at The Chicago Manual of Style Shop Talk blog!
Some lessons are harder to learn than others. Unfortunately for new copyeditors, sometimes the only way to recognize bad habits is to get slammed a few times by writers pushing back or by supervisors writing stet all over the copy.
So let me save you some grief and humiliation! Here are three bad habits I identified the hard way as a young editor . . .
Photo: Ooops!, courtesy of Sten Dueland.
It seems like it's difficult to find an editor with a gentle hand and an open mind. At my last place of work, any time I needed a vacation they would call in one or another temp editor. One was addicted to inserting "that" wherever possible, another labored under antiquated comma usage, etc. I could identify who they'd contracted by the nature of the work I had to undo when I returned. It was heartbreaking to see an editor strip the voice out of our talented copywriters, rather than touch up a line or two or just ask some pertinent questions.
Posted by: Christian Wilkie | 05/22/2017 at 08:45 AM