Now that I have the privilege of being an Editor For Real, I practically live with a red pen in my hand. If I’m not typing and someone wanders into my office, I quickly snatch up the one on my keyboard to, you know, keep up appearances. I used to edit in blue ink because it seemed less daunting and blood-like, but I have gotten over that. I am out for blood these days.
Of course, to say that I have only begun editing would be a gross falsehood. I have been hypercritical for my entire life, which is handy in my line of work but altogether irritating everywhere else. For better or for worse, I can’t turn off my editing eye. I am indignant with low-budget publications (we don’t subscribe to any local newspapers), my nostrils flare at errors on commercials, and I shout spontaneously if I see an obvious proofing lapse in junk mail.
“Look at this,” I say excitedly as I shake a flier in JG’s face, “Just look at this.”
He scans. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s a sale on ‘girls clothing.’ Without an apostrophe. Because we can have men’s and women’s clothing, but not girls’. It’s plural and possessive. What is so hard about this?”
JG shrugs. “I just read what I know it’s supposed to be.”
How convenient.
Needless to say, the editing tic rears its ugly head when I dive into the blogosphere. Lo, the online world knows no style guidelines. I don’t believe it’s useful to pipe up every time I find something wrong on any website I visit, so even if my eyes are bulging out of my head, I do my best to practice restraint, breathe deeply and click away, particularly if I can tell that the person is rambling in a stream-of-consciousness way. If I’m reading what I perceive to be a well-formed essay or credible publication (like a news site), I am much pickier. If I know the author to some degree and the typo affects meaning, I might send a painstakingly worded e-mail. In most cases, though, my cowardice about coming across as completely mean overtakes my anal retention, and the typo goes unreported.
A couple of weeks ago, I e-mailed Audrey with what I called “a small Red Pen Item (hereby known as an RPI)” on a recent post. As a fellow editor, I knew she would take to the edit more kindly than most, and more importantly, call me out on any fellow RPIs of my own. I thought long and hard about the e-mail, trying my best not to “be categorized as beeyotch,” as I ultimately put it. Just as I had hoped, Audrey was completely understanding and fixed up the offending sentence right away. Hooray! And also — phew.
Last night, I checked my e-mail, and at the sight of a certain subject line — “Red Pen Emergency” — I let out a sharp gasp.
“It’s nothing,” I sputtered when JG showed concern. “It’s just that Audrey found a mistake in my post that I really should have caught.” Kicking myself mentally and slapping my forehead physically, I amended the excruciatingly redundant “8am in the morning” to simply “8am.” I admit that I felt better afterward.
All of this is to say that there is no shame in invoking the RPI. It’s humbling to be edited, but as Audrey wrote in response to my initial RPI e-mail:
What are editor friends for if not to look out for one another where RPIs are concerned? I think of it the same way as good friends telling you if you have something in your teeth to keep you from embarrassing yourself. We editors have got to stick together.
Here’s to cleaner teeth, friends.
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Special thanks go to Audrey for proofing this post and making sure nothing would embarrass me.
11 comments
I was hesitant to embrace the red pen at first, too. But then a typesetter pointed out that red is preferred because, unlike blue which can get lost among all the black type, red stands out on a page. It’s hard to miss a red mark, so corrections made in red are far less likely to accidentally be overlooked. And thus began my love affair with the red pen.
I also cannot stand to read local newspapers. I noticed the poor grammar early in high school and the paper immediately lost all credibility in my eyes. Once for a college class we had to find a piece of published writing and mark it up. I selected an article from the campus paper, and the page was positively bleeding by the time I turned it in. And, recently, Tim sent me a picture message on my phone of the gigantic headline on the front page of his campus paper which read “Safey on Campus.” How in the world does something like that go unnoticed?! I’ve considered writing the university and asking for a refund of my husband’s tuition. If that school can’t teach its journalism majors the basics of proofreading, I really don’t feel like it deserves the great big checks we write every semester.
One more quick thing (I know this is the longest comment ever) — I have to admit that I’d forgotten what RPI stood for until I saw this post. So I apologize for the perhaps overly alarming wording in that “Red Pen Emergency” email. I promise to use the less startling “RPI” terminology for all future emails of that nature. Unless, of course, it truly is a grammar emergency of epic proportions.
I feel like I can never go back to some wimpy, non-red pen now. I would totally lose street cred. For the record, I do believe that an RPI can be upgraded to an RPE in times of alarm such as “safey on campus.” Good lord.
I can see how some people might be offended by an e-mail suggesting that they correct their posts. However, I would rather that someone tell me that I made a stupid mistake than to have people laughing at me all across the internet!
I know, that’s how I feel, too. But people very easily SAY that they’re open to correction when, really, they just think they don’t make mistakes.
oh man I hope you and Audrey don’t secretly talk about my lack of correct grammar and style on my blog!!!! hopefully you will love me anyway, right? I get so bored of writing correctly at work I like being a little more creative on the blog.
Audrey and I don’t have secret grammar gossip sessions, don’t worry! It’s more of an internal tic that rarely shows its face in an actual e-mail. I lack the ability to leave this habit at the office; Lord knows JG wishes I could.
While I usually don’t cringe when I see redundancies in blog entries (probably because I often use superfluous words!), it’s the grammatical errors that really get to me. I think everyone should read Eats, Shoots and Leaves (the author is Lynne Truss for those who may not have heard of her)—it’s a quick read and looks at grammar in an amusing way. I find it goes over proper apostrophe use (an area where many have problems) very well.
I hope you will feel free to point out any errors you see on my entries RA. I’m definitely in the camp that would appreciate it!
I love that book so much. My mother-in-law, a former English teacher, bought me a copy when it first came out and I turn to it if I need a quick laugh. One of my favorite parts is the disclaimer about how the book is punctuated in the British style so that American nitpickers don’t go crazy.
I spend a lot (LOT) of time at work painstakingly editing emails that really aren’t important. It’s fun. So much so that by the time I get around to the blog I just don’t give a crap if things are gramatically perfect. I hope you guys don’t hate me and talk behind my back about my overuse of commas and lack of paragraph structure.
While I don’t judge blogs harshly (unless it is obvious that the writer really doesn’t even know that they’re being sloppy), I do take pictures of every sign and published work I see that has something blatantly wrong. Someday I’m going to do something with them.
No worries, there is no secret coalition of grammar snobs. But please post a collage of sign mishaps!
I used to be very strict about grammar and spelling, but something changed. I’m not into that stuff at all now.
I just read and write for meaning.
But your passion for rules must make you great at your job!
“Passion for rules” — I like that so much more than “finicky rigidity.”
That is dorky editing amazingness! I do a LOT of writing at work, but I’m usually the one who needs to be edited. On the whole, I’d say that my grammar is pretty good. I know my your/you’re, my they’re/there/their, my its/it’s and my “all of our friends came” / “all of our friend’s came” (HATE).
However, I am the queen of the run-on sentence and probably use more malapropisms than I’d like to admit. Sometimes I reread my blog posts and cringe and the poorly worded sentences.
Knowing those apostrophe distinctions puts you head and shoulders above the average joe, I think. Or at least the average medical article author. Ahem.
I’ve made a lot of little errors in my blogging, and sometimes they are passed over by me AND everyone else who reads. (Last night, I was horrified to find out that my new post had been titled “Laugher is the Best Medicine” and nobody had spotted the typo, myself included!)
Feel free to correct me, should any grammar mistakes shoot out at you. I subconsciously do the same thing, especially at restaurants or anywhere you find a lot of text - I’m so used to scanning sentences for incorrect spelling because of the kidlets, that I find mistakes everywhere!
Oh, restaurants can be the worst! I will take you up on that; I mean, you do have that awesome “I’m a noun” shirt!
Oh goodness, this made me laugh out loud, and reminded me of the very funny morning when you emailed me a teeny tiny apostrophe correction that I had (embarassingly) left in my book review on, that’s right, a punctuation book. Sigh, it’s the editors in our lives who keep us from looking like complete morons, so thank you a million for that. :o)
xox
Ah, you’re welcome! I remember that post! I felt silly, correcting a punctuation book review, but I re-read and re-read until I was sure. The worst is to make some correction and then get called out that it wasn’t right. STET!
I have noticed that several books that I have read over the last 4 months or so have such obvious typographical errors, that it really is disturbing. It makes me a little upset and I think, seriously, did someone edit this? I know I make plenty of errors on my blog and I rarely spend much time editing my posts, but you would think that a book that has thousands of copies printed would be a little more carefully reviewed. Just last night the book I was reading had Anaheim, California spelled “Annaheim” on one page and not two pages later was correctly spelled “Anaheim.” Argh.
I’m an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher and I am much more forgiving with the students (for obvious reasons), but the book thing just drives me slightly crazy sometimes.
Ugh, Annaheim. That makes me cringe because simple spell check would pick it up. You would assume that books that have gone into an actual printing process went through several checks, especially for stuff like that.
I’m so glad that you’re enjoying your new job! It’s always nice to hear when someone is doing something that they really like to do. (Although you DO seem maybe a tad over-attached to that scary red pen…)
I probably am over-attached, but at least now I have an excuse, right?
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