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Friday, June 10, 2005 Editorial trials
Right before going to bed last night I checked my email and found in my in-box the edited and coded (but not yet typeset) version of an article I have coming out this winter in Big Journal in my Field. At first I was squealing with joy, since I'm SO excited about this essay--but then I took a look at the editing. The dude who edits this journal has not, to my knowledge, published a book on his own, but he's been at the helm of this publication for quite a while now and I certainly give him credit for knowing his stuff--but isn't there something more worthwhile you could be doing with your time than fucking up my prose style?
He's a good copyeditor, and definitely slapped my endnotes upside the head with the Chicago manual and they're all the better for it--but most of his many, many "corrections" amount to quibbles over word order, or changing a participle to a verb, and the resulting sentences tend to clunk when they aren't downright incomprehensible. Boyfriend is no Maxwell Perkins, is what I'm saying. In the end I don't think it's a big deal (as I say, the thing hasn't been typeset yet and the editorial assistant I e-mailed today sounded pretty laid back about my restoring my original text where I felt necessary), but again, dude! You've got tenure at a decent regional school; your students are the appropriate objects of your pedantry. 0 Comments:Want to Post a Comment? |
