Roger's Gleanings
Roger W. Smith's writings: personal essays and reminiscences; views; literature; culture; day to day jottings; people and places.
Category Archives: grammar (thoughts of a grammar purist and ex-proofreader)
copyeditors, who needs 'em (The New York Times, that's who)
Mr. Donleavy lived in London and on the Isle of Man for most of the 1950s and '60s, then moved to Ireland in 1969 after it had abolished the income tax for creative artists, including writer [italics added].
— "J.P. Donleavy, Acclaimed Author of 'The Ginger Man,' Dies at 91," by Anita Gates, The New York Times, September 13, 2017
I worked as a proofreader and copyeditor during the 1970's and 1980's and made a living at it exclusively for about five years during which I was self employed. I greatly benefited from a professional course I took with a Doubleday editor and from on the job experience. My work improved over time, pretty fast. It had to. One has to be thoroughly knowledgeable and competent, diligent, and meticulous to do such work.
I saved, many times, very good writers from egregious errors. As a writer over the years, I know how essential to any writer copyeditors and proofreaders are. Check out the acknowledgments section of a scholarly book and more often than not you will find the author stating just that.
So why did The New York Times eliminate its stand-alone copy desks?
"Editing is vital to The Times. It separates us from the competition. It is one of the reasons readers trust our information. And it elevates our language," Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet recently stated. ("Dean Baquet Answers Readers' Questions on Editing in the Newsroom," The New York Times, July 6, 2017.) He was speaking about the Times's decision to eliminate its stand-alone copyediting desks and fire dozens of (mostly veteran) copyeditors.
I agree that editing is vital. Also, as a regular Times reader for some 50 years, I have noticed that it has always seemed to be more carefully edited than most daily newspapers, in addition to the fact that the stories are notably polished and well written.
Suddenly, wouldn't you just know it, despite assurances that quality would not suffer, frequent typos and the like are cropping up in Times articles. This despite Baquet's assurances that "we will be watching closely to make sure that our stories are still up to the standards our readers expect." When I read that statement three months ago, his words did not sound reassuring. Who will be watching closely?
As noted above, I once took an invaluable copyediting course. The instructor made a point about why attention to detail on the part of editors and copyeditors is essential: Sloppiness in editing and production tends to decrease the reader's overall confidence in a piece of writing (I am not thinking of fiction) and its accuracy. One starts to wonder, with careless errors here and there, if maybe there are not more serious errors, such as misspelled names, wrong dates, errors of fact, and other mistakes for which one will find the newspaper apologizing in its "Corrections" section. Or that can make the informed reader of a nonfiction book wonder whether he or she can trust its contents. If there are frequent mistakes of the kind a copyeditor should have caught in the published book (such as the time that I found W. E. B. Du Bois's name being misspelled throughout a book that was devoted to African American culture and writers), one may suspect that it was rushed into print and that one can't rely on it as a source.
There is a noticeable trend away from correctness in written and spoken language. Electronic communication is mostly responsible for this, it seems: the internet, texting, and email. The age of print, which began with Guttenberg almost six centuries ago, may be ending. This would be incredibly unfortunate — devastating, in my opinion.
— Roger W. Smith
This entry was posted in editorial work (both done personally by me and as practiced in journalism and publishing), grammar (thoughts of a grammar purist and ex-proofreader), journalism critiqued as such (and as specimens of writing) and tagged Dean Baquet, New York Times copy desk, Roger Smith, Roger W. Smith on September 13, 2017 by Roger W. Smith.
grammar (again!)
"A documentary that aired on Britain's Channel 4 two weeks ago generated news about how much sex — or not so much — Charles and Diana were having as their marriage cratered, mostly because Charles could not get over his one true love, Camilla Parker-Bowles, the Duchess of Cornwall, who he later married."
— "Princes William and Harry are all grown up, and their mother would be proud," by Karla Adam and William Booth, The Washington Post, August 28, 2017
These two reporters do not know that it should be WHOM he later married.
If, like me, you were carefully taught the eight parts of speech in elementary school, you would have learned that there are such things as PRONOUNS; for example, the pronoun who and its variant form whom.
This would have enabled you (as it did me) to better understand how language works. A pronoun such as who when it is a subject is who, but when it is an object, it becomes whom. Elementary, my dear Watson! So we were taught by prim fussy schoolmarms eons ago. (Don't ask me to explain why this type of variation – in spelling – occurs with pronouns and not nouns.)
But now, it's considered to be too much to ask schoolchildren to be taxed with such lessons. And, it also seems to be considered a waste of time.
I would be willing to bet that a lot of schoolteachers nowadays don't know the parts of speech themselves, or how they function.
This entry was posted in grammar (thoughts of a grammar purist and ex-proofreader) and tagged Roger Smith, Roger W. Smith on August 29, 2017 by Roger W. Smith.
subject-verb DISagreement
" 'The racism and deadly violence in Charlottesville is unacceptable but there is a better way to remove these monuments,' Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said via Twitter on Monday evening."
— "Protestors in North Carolina topple Confederate statue following Charlottesville violence," The Washington Post, August 15, 2017
Does anyone know (let alone care) that a plural subject takes a plural verb? This grammar rule is violated routinely — all the time. Not only by public speakers and journalists — both in speaking and in print — but also, incredibly, it is routinely violated by academics.
When you come to think about it, this is not all that surprising. After all, grammar isn't taught in elementary schools any more; this has been the case since around 1970. It was considered too old fashioned, something prim schoolmarms used to fuss over.
I am very thankful that I had such teachers. They taught such things as sentence structure, the parts of speech, and the difference between a subject and an object. Heaven forbid, they even had us diagramming sentences!
This entry was posted in general interest, grammar (thoughts of a grammar purist and ex-proofreader) and tagged Roger Smith, Roger W. Smith on August 15, 2017 by Roger W. Smith.
grammar anyone?
"white nationalists, counterprotestors, violently clash"
— CNN
There should not be a comma between "counterprotestors" and "violently."
The way it's punctuated, it would appear that there is an apposition indicating that the white nationalists are one and the same group as the counterprotestors.
Grammar! it's gone the way of the curtsey.
an intellectual adventure
Joshua Prawer
"Wish We Had Satchel Paige to Pitch"
traveling from Boston to New York in 1842; a Charles Dickens letter
A. M. Rosenthal (NY Times Managing Editor & columnist)
actors and acting
advice a la Dear Abby
Alan W. Smith (Roger W. Smith's father)
Aldrich Ames (convicted spy)
Anglo Saxon poetry
autobiographical – Roger W. Smith
book reviews by Roger W. Smith
books (considered as such)
books – the physical book
Canton High School, Canton, MA
Carl Nielsen (Danish composer)
children's and young adult books
cities; urban living; urban policies and planning
college (my courses & professors)
correspondence of Roger W. Smith
creativity; thought
criminal "justice"
diaries of sons' early years kept by Roger W. Smith
Питирим Александрович Сорокинn
editorial work (both done personally by me and as practiced in journalism and publishing)
Elinor Handy Smith (Roger W. Smith's mother)
English (the language)
epistolary (letter writing as a genre; letters as examples of good writing)
essays (by Roger W. Smith)
etiquette, personal conduct
exercise; personal health
family history (includes content that is broader in scope than just genealogy)
foreign language papers by Roger Smith
George Gissing (Victorian novelist)
grammar (thoughts of a grammar purist and ex-proofreader)
Harry Stack Sullivan
health care and medicine (considered generally)
Hiroshige, Utagawa – landscape prints
journalism by Roger W. Smith
journalism critiqued as such (and as specimens of writing)
journalism school papers by Roger Smith
Juan Ramón Jiménez (Spanish poet)
language (vocabulary, usage); language in the abstract as it pertains to writing
language policing (political correctness)
letters to editor by Roger W. Smith
Liberal Religious Youth (LRY) / Student Religious Liberals (SRL)
miscellaneous writings (not by Roger Smith)
music (from the point of view of a listener)
musings (random daily thoughts)
my city and neighborhood
my favorite art
my favorite poems
my reading; observations on reading
my recent ancestors (grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.)
obituaries and eulogies
Old Norse Poetry
personal psychology (Roger W. Smith observations re)
personal reminiscences of Roger W. Smith
personal views of Roger W. Smith
personal writings of Roger W. Smith
Pitirim A. Sorokin (sociologist & social philosopher)
political correctness (PC)
public morality
publications (bibliography) of Roger W. Smith
reading and readers
reference book articles by Roger W. Smith
relationships (general comments re)
rhetoric and style
scholarly articles by Roger W. Smith
Scholastic Search magazine – articles by Roger W. Smith
tributes (written by Roger W. Smith)
whaling (19th century accounts of)
work and the working life
writers considered not in depth, but as exemplars (for good or bad) of the craft
writing (the craft of writing; good vs. bad writing; my training, experience, and lessons re same)
writing as it relates to my blog posts and readers' sensitivities
writing/literature – miscellaneous observations
歌川 広重)
Alan W. Smith
Alan Wright Smith
Annie C. Hart
Annie Congdon Hart
Annie Handy
Bill Dalzell
Carl Nielsen
Charles Pierre
Edward Marshall Hart
Elinor C. Handy
Elinor Congdon Handy
Elinor H. Smith
Elinor Handy
Elinor Handy Smith
Elinor Smith
Elizabeth F. Hewins
Elizabeth Frances Hewins
Esther Whittredge
George C. Smith
George Caldwell Smith
George Colwell Smith
George Orwell Nineteen Eighty-Four
Henry T. Handy
Henry Thomas Handy
Herman Melville Moby-Dick
Jane Gilchrist
John C. Hart
John Congdon Hart
Liberal Religious Youth
Louisa May Alcott Work: A Story of Experience
P. A. Sorokin
Pitirim A. Sorokin
Pitirim Sorokin
Ralph Colp Jr.
Ralph Colp[ Jr. MD
Ralph E. Handy
Ralph Ellis Handy
Robert Tighe
Robert W. Tighe
Roger W. Smith
T. Gordon Smith
William Dalzell
William Handy
William S. Dalzell
William Sage Dalzell
zero-tolerance policy
Дмитрий Шостакович
Питири́м Алекса́ндрович Соро́кин