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Sep. 21st, 2009 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynneHmmm. So, yesterday I basically started my copy editing job--got the articles from my writers, made edits, gave them back. Last night I get another draft from one of them, and she made most of the edits I suggested, but there were a few more I would have been more comfortable with, so I send it back with a few more notes. Today she emails me back and says she's not sure about a couple of the edits but she made them anyway.
I'm...sort of not sure what to think about that. I mean, of course I'm appreciative that she actually made the edits and trusted my judgment. Maybe it's that the paper's editors have made it clear that our (the copy editors') edits are not supposed to be optional. I just feel sorta funny because some of these things are judgment calls, less "that's incorrect" so much as "I think it sounds better this other way".
One of the edits I suggested last night was a factual thing (the writer using "light year" as hyperbole of time, when a light year is a measure of distance), one was a judgment call with a grammatical reason behind it (shifting words to make use of parallel structure), but the last was a pure judgment call where I just thought the phrase she used sounded weird. I wouldn't have been at all surprised, and barely disappointed, if she hadn't bothered with the last edit.
I guess my bemusement here comes from all my betaing online. When I beta, everything is a suggestion. Sometimes it's a very strong suggestion, especially with the grammar stuff, but I always know that I am the beta, not the author, and it is the author who has the final say. If the author wants to post something I think sounds odd or awkward even after I've tried to persuade her otherwise, well, it's her story.
It's really quite refreshing to have someone actually make all of the edits I suggest, because that has...pretty much never happened before, in all the time I've betad. Usually authors will take most of my suggestions, but there are always a few things they exercise their own judgments about, and I'm fine with that. But now I'm wondering, how much can I, hmm, relate betaing to copy editing? How much does an article belong to the one who wrote it (in which case I'd want to encourage them to exercise their own judgment a bit more*), and how much to the paper (in which case I should just expect them to make my edits because this is a job I've been specifically hired to do and it is part of their job to listen to me)?
*Within reason--pure judgment calls maybe, but they'd better still listen on the factual/grammar stuff.
Or in other words, I suppose what I'm asking is how much I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth? XD
I'm...sort of not sure what to think about that. I mean, of course I'm appreciative that she actually made the edits and trusted my judgment. Maybe it's that the paper's editors have made it clear that our (the copy editors') edits are not supposed to be optional. I just feel sorta funny because some of these things are judgment calls, less "that's incorrect" so much as "I think it sounds better this other way".
One of the edits I suggested last night was a factual thing (the writer using "light year" as hyperbole of time, when a light year is a measure of distance), one was a judgment call with a grammatical reason behind it (shifting words to make use of parallel structure), but the last was a pure judgment call where I just thought the phrase she used sounded weird. I wouldn't have been at all surprised, and barely disappointed, if she hadn't bothered with the last edit.
I guess my bemusement here comes from all my betaing online. When I beta, everything is a suggestion. Sometimes it's a very strong suggestion, especially with the grammar stuff, but I always know that I am the beta, not the author, and it is the author who has the final say. If the author wants to post something I think sounds odd or awkward even after I've tried to persuade her otherwise, well, it's her story.
It's really quite refreshing to have someone actually make all of the edits I suggest, because that has...pretty much never happened before, in all the time I've betad. Usually authors will take most of my suggestions, but there are always a few things they exercise their own judgments about, and I'm fine with that. But now I'm wondering, how much can I, hmm, relate betaing to copy editing? How much does an article belong to the one who wrote it (in which case I'd want to encourage them to exercise their own judgment a bit more*), and how much to the paper (in which case I should just expect them to make my edits because this is a job I've been specifically hired to do and it is part of their job to listen to me)?
*Within reason--pure judgment calls maybe, but they'd better still listen on the factual/grammar stuff.
Or in other words, I suppose what I'm asking is how much I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth? XD
