KJC Edits

In case it might help someone out there...

Thought this might bring some giggles! 😘

Did you know that there's a Cybersecurity Style Guide? And that it's partly based on the Microsoft Style Guide? Both are available online as well as downloadable PDFs.

The Bishop Fox Cybersecurity Style Guide, last updated 19 July 2018: https://cybersecuritystyleguide.bishopfox.com/browse

And the Microsoft Writing Style Guide, last updated 16 August 2019: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide/welcome/

And here's a picture I took back in June of some random graffiti in Bucharest, Romania.

I've always said I don't edit fiction, because I get too caught up in the action. But, it turns out, I can edit a comic book script because the references to pages and panels breaks up the text sufficiently, that I don't get too absorbed. And not only can I copy edit them, I can also provide a certain amount of insight into character development, setting, interactions, etc.

I learn something new every day!

In the past week, I have learned a lot about how we develop a sense of place and grow attached to geographical locations.

I've read about the scourge of malaria and the loss of productivity and loss of life it inflicts on Nigeria every year.

And I've been given the opportunity to learn even more about how cyber-criminals operate in Eastern Europe.

On top of that, I've spent a lot of time considering the finer points on how to get Microsoft Word to do what I want it to do, instead of what it was programmed to do.

These are the best possible outcomes of being a copy editor.

Hooray!

March 8 is National Proofreading Day. Thank you to editors everywhere.

Happy Holidays to all!!!

Nice try, frog.

Things that help us editors make sense of other people's writing:

Hyperbaton is when you put words in an odd order, which is very, very difficult to do in English. Given that almost everything else in the English language is slapdash, happy-go-lucky, care-may-the-Devil, word order is surprisingly strict. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien wrote his first story aged seven. It was about a “green great dragon.” He showed it to his mother who told him that you absolutely couldn’t have a green great dragon, and that it had to be a great green one instead. Tolkien was so disheartened that he never wrote another story for years.

The reason for Tolkien’s mistake, since you ask, is that adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest, you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out. And as size comes before colour, green great dragons can’t exist.
- From The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase by Mark Forsyth

This perfect piece of poetry on the value of proofreading is 3 minutes and 30 seconds long. There are a few words that aren't exactly safe for work, but it's not obscene.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OonDPGwAyfQ

"The The Impotence of Proofreading," by TAYLOR MALI Performed at the very first Page Meets Stage pairing at the Bowery Poetry Club on November 12, 2005

I hope this helps folks sort out passive versus active voice!

Academic writing explained.

I think, more than anything, it is super painful for me to hear from a client who's had bad luck with editors. Editors who did "nothing" (or barely anything), editors who wanted to put their imprint on the work, editors who don't communicate with their clients and find out what the client wants or doesn't want and then implement THAT and only that.

If I do my job correctly, I vanish. My work disappears along with all the little errors, the grammar mistakes, the missing punctuation, the problematic word choices, and the occasional awkward phrase... and nothing but the writer's hard work shines through.

Last night I edited a paper for a client in Israel and exchanged emails with another client in Qatar.

I've edited for people from all around the world living in the Boston metro area AND I've worked with people living in France, the UAE, Canada, South Korea, China, Somalia, and Brazil. I also have clients all over the United States.

Sound off! Where do you live?