Random person: Oh you’re an editor? That means you correct mistakes, right? Can’t a spell-checker do that? I read a book and spotted a typo once; maybe I should be an editor! *chortle, guffaw, splutter*
Me: *pleasant smile while my soul is dying*
Sure, when I edit something, I correct mistakes. However, that’s a very small part of what I do. In fact, it probably makes up the smallest percentage of the time I spend on a job. That might seem surprising, but an editor is concerned with far more than just typos and grammar snafus.
The easiest way to show what I mean is to use an example.
Here’s a random passage of fiction, which is unedited.
Lucy spun on her bar stool, and thought for a moment. Work had been rubbish that day. something caught her eye from across the room and she saw Mike, his emerald-eyes sparkling as he waved to her. Be cool Lucy, she said to herself. As Mike came closer, she gave him a big grin. “Why don’t you sit here Mike,” she instructed, pointing at the seat next to her. “Don’t mind if I do, Mike grinned, pulling a chair from under the table and sitting down opposite her.
You’ve probably noticed a few things up with it already.
Let’s take a look at it with just the ‘mistakes’ corrected.
That looks a lot better, doesn’t it? But what if I did some more editing after the mistakes were corrected?
That second screenshot is what takes up a huge amount of my time. And depending on the brief and how interventionist a client wanted me to be, there’s more I could do to that passage. Some of those things might seem obvious, but you’d be amazed how often inconsistencies or funny chronology pops up in books and goes unnoticed. And, of course, those examples don’t touch on a myriad other things editors must look out for: better word choice, convoluted sentences, offensive words or phrases, dangling modifiers, etc. The list is extensive. Perhaps many readers wouldn’t notice Mike’s changing eyes or barstool being styled differently throughout the novel – but some would. And those are things that need ironed out for a piece of writing to be professionally polished and presented.
So, perhaps I should print those examples out and hand them out to the next person who makes a spell-check quip! Although I think I’d soon stop being invited to things. . .
I just posted this to my Facebook page, Katherine.
Not too sure this sentence makes sense?
“And those are things that need ironed out for a piece of writing to be professionally polished and presented.”
Hi Nick!
Are you referring to the lack of ‘to be’ after need? That’s fairly standard Scottish English construction. We have a lot of quirks like this, which I love to use in my own writing.
Perhaps there’s another blog post in there!
Thanks for your post!
Excellent demonstration, and it’s only the beginning. Just don’t get me started on the authors who don’t care enough to even run spellcheck and we’ll be just fine…
Thanks, Katherine. I also get a bit tired of the line “Oh, you’re a proofreader?” Sure, I started out ten years ago as a proofreader and I still do proofreading jobs from time to time, but the majority of my time is spent doing structural editing, heavy copy editing, rewriting or writing material. I’ve shared your article to help “spread the wisdom”!
Woah! You’ve solved a mystery! I’m from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where many residents use the construction “needs [past-tense verb],” such as “My jeans need washed” or “This chicken needs cooked more.” We are often derided for this ungrammatical construction. So do you think it has Scottish origins? The city was historically settled by German, Irish, Scottish, Polish, and Italian immigrants. But I’m wondering if the construction is from our Scottish-Irish Appalachian roots, too.
I think it has both Scottish and Irish roots. It’s very commonly used here (Scotland) to the extent that no one would blink an eye at its usage. But my English OH is unfamiliar with the construction (although obviously understands what it means). A colleague of mine in Northern Ireland says it is used there too, so there does seem to be some sort of Celtic link!
I’m fascinated to learn it’s used in parts of the US too. I might need to go down the rabbit hole and do some more research! I find regional quirks of language like this so interesting, and really think it’s important they are preserved as much as possible.
That does indeed sound interesting 🙂
I commend you on your excellent editing skills. Clearly you are at home in your work. It’s also opened my eyes to this construction.
Another thing I noticed in Scottish language when I was there was the use of the plural “yous”, which after analysis, I found to make sense in most cases. “Are yous coming out tonight?” Makes more sense than ‘you’ in this case if you are addressing more than one person.
There is an excellent page about “needs washed” (and similar constructions) at http://microsyntax.sites.yale.edu/needs-washed
My friend from central Pennsylvania also uses “redd up,” which means nothing to people outside of that region. For example, “The room needs redded up.” I’ve read that this expression also comes from Scotland.
I really like this blog post. It explains very well what is involved in editing.
And by the way, this article is a fantastic example of what we copyeditors do. Thanks so much! I’ll share this on my social media. Your opening scenario is so familiar. People do proudly tell me how they saw a typo in a book, or they can’t stomach when someone misspells “they’re,” and they think this is our main function. If only our jobs were this easy, to spot a misspelling or to fix a homophone.
You could print that stuff out and show it to such people. Or you could just blind them instead. I won’t judge you.
Continuing down the rabbit hole, another Pittsburghese expression mocked in other regions of the United States is our use of the word “slippy” (“Be careful driving home tonight; the roads are slippy”). I thought this was just a slang word made up by people in Pittsburgh, until I read a novel by Irish novelist Maeve Binchy. She used “slippy” several times in the book. So I looked up the term in Merriam-Webster’s and saw that it indeed is a bona fide word. But I’m assuming it must be used more commonly in the British isles, the place where many Pittsburghers ancestors came from.