The Unity of Copyediting |
Do you ever wonder what makes the Metro such a succinct, literate news-paper? Well, here's one reason: the precise, acute eyes and ears of Anne Fox, a seasoned professional copyeditor, one of three dedicated volunteers who spend several hours twice a month to ensure the readability of our best source of neighborhood news. |
Anne, who grew up in Southern California, views becoming an editor as a 'trick of fate.' Educated at UCLA and UC Berkeley, she had planned to teach Spanish but decided not to after she met her husband. She eventually got a credential in Adult Education and taught basic education courses and ESL. Fortunately, the 1970s launched her literary future. She began taking writing classes and learned about an editorial workshop. "So I went to that, and it was like the click-filings to a magnet. All the disparate information that I sort of knew from doing things came together. It had a unity; I understood more." Anne continued to study writing and to do freelance editing. Her bookshelves, lined with a wealth of books on writing, reflect how much she learned on her own as well. Though she wrote a range of columns for the Montclarion, she changed direction after "the Gulf War. I was very upset. Everything I did seemed totally silly, so I stopped." She then began a more serious focus on copyediting. Anne sees herself as a reactive editor. "I react. I'm reading something, and it gets me one way, or it bothers me, and I respond with notes to the writer." She's on the alert for sentence clarity, structure, diction, arrangement of sentences. A good editor must be aware of her own biases and be careful not to inject her own tone, which, she adds, is a common complaint of writers, even of letters to the editor. Anne hopes that through her role as a professional copyeditor, writers will learn something and not make the same mistakes multiple times. When reviewing Metro articles, the volunteers sit down together and evaluate the material simultaneously. "There is a discussion about changes or not changes. Ideally, the copyeditor and the editor try to have the writer's work be stronger because of the changes. You have to ask, 'What is gained or lost?â' Each person has something to either assert or defend. And we judge the strength of that defense or assertion." One could say that the group works on consensus because, as Anne states sardonically, "We do get the paper out." But the world of editing isn't always so gentle. "When you do copyediting, you go into the material with the assumption that there is something wrong." While she acknowledges that this may sound harsh, she notes, "You have to stay alert." And now, with the high quality of computers and printers, editors have to be especially vigilant. Manuscripts look so good that it is hard to imagine anything could be wrong. "And, of course, there are mistakes. So I realized I should not be bamboozled, mesmerized by the look of the page." Luckily, the Metro has never been besieged by bad writing. But if we should stray into verbosity, reality will always save us-"Space creates its own limits." What Anne enjoys most about her work is the camaraderie of working with her fellow volunteers. "I do love working with the language. There are not many places you can do that or talk to anyone who cares." After years of writing and working as a professional freelance copyeditor, Anne knows what makes vibrant writing: Style, tone, knowledge of structure, writing clearly, knowing what you are writing about. A good writer must be like a good chef, have a respect for the work he is doing, have a respect for language. And, critically, writers must also be readers, something that many fledgling authors neglect. Anne's hopes for the future of the Metro include more humorous pieces and some serious restaurant reviews. Interested? Join us, and contribute to your community while you get the benefit of Anne's free professional copyediting! Call the Metro for more information. |
