[Vwoolf] Leonard Woolf as copy editor

[Melanie White]

I worked for many years as a copy editor. As spell-checkers became more
common, copy editors became more expendable. In time, copy editor functions
were folded into other job descriptions, based on the assumption that anyone
semi-literate could do it. Many employers believed just about anybody could
copy edit, so why pay a specialist? We were called on to justify ourselves
more and more, and eventually our jobs were eliminated.

 

In the last ten years or so, things like texting and on-line commenting have
eroded public expectations. People have grown accustomed to sloppiness and
forgive it because they make so many errors themselves when IMing their
coworkers or texting with their kids. 

 

I also blame reality TV for a lot of this mixing-up-of-similar-words. Not
everyone can reach for the right word and lay hands on it in the moment.
Most of us need a sec. But when you’re on a reality TV show and the producer
has the camera on you, you don’t want to look hesistant or inarticulate. So
you grab at validate but instead end up with solidify. Who cares? You get
the idea. 

 

Newspapers are dying or dead, and most magazines and journals exist on paper
as a sidelight to their “online presence.” And people seem way more
forgiving online, so both editions are infected with rampant carelessness in
the rush for 24/7 coverage of everything from Middle East protests to
warning signs for botox abuse. 

 

I’m not a snob, I swear. I love the way English continues to grow and change
over time. I’m willing and happy to change rules or introduce new usages. I
am not opposed to change. But there’s a difference between change and
sloppiness. 

 

I’m a lover of words. I consider myself one of a dying breed, the last of a
dying species. I am in my mid-50s. I learned to set type on a Varityper, but
typesetting was replaced by word processing, which has been replaced by the
Internet. I loved the precision of setting type. I love the precision of
words. I consider it an art: sensing when to abide by a rule or bend it for
the sake of an effect. But some things are just plain wrong when they’re
wrong. I wonder when – or whether – we’ll reach bottom in our tolerance for
sloppiness. I figure when people start losing money or dying because of it. 

 

N.B. I apologize now for any typos or grammatical mistakes in this post. 

 

From: vwoolf-bounces+melanie.white=comcast.net at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
[mailto:vwoolf-bounces+melanie.white=comcast.net at lists.service.ohio-state.ed
u] On Behalf Of Jeremy Hawthorn
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 6:00 AM
To: VWOOLF at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Leonard Woolf as copy editor

 

Fascinating information. Writers do seem to vary enormously when it comes to
such things, with some checking every comma and semi-colon at every stage of
the publishing process, and others - well, leaving it to spouses and copy
editors. As Mark implies, such matters do impact on theories of textual
editing. It does seem to me that if a writer leaves the fine-tuning of - say
- punctuation to a copy editor, then this has to impact on matters of
scholarly editing. Getting back to the "final authorial version" may not be
as appropriate in such cases as it is where the writer wanted control over
ever tiny detail right through to publication. On the other hand, as anyone
who has had their writing copy-edited knows, leaving the final check of your
punctuation to someone else must on occasions result in changes of meaning.

Jeremy H


On 25.10.2013 14:20, Mark Hussey wrote:

No, VW was quite sloppy and LW copy edited her texts. In The Death of the
Moth and Other Essays (1942), Leonard wrote of his having “punctuated and
corrected obvious verbal mistakes. I have not hesitated to do this, since I
always revised the MSS. of her books and articles in this way before they
were published.”

 

Of course, as recent textual editing theory has taught us, editing is always
interpretation!

 

From: vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
<mailto:vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>
[mailto:vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Jeremy
Hawthorn
Sent: Friday, October 25, 2013 7:57 AM
To: 'list', 'woolf' ‎[VWOOLF at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
<mailto:VWOOLF at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu> ]‎
Subject: [Vwoolf] Leonard Woolf as copy editor

 

Is it John Lehmann who has written about how scrupulous a copy editor
Leonard W was? I have a memory of some such account. But did Virginia do
copy editing for the Hogarth Press? I should know this but don't.

Jeremy H






-- 
Professor Jeremy Hawthorn
Emeritus Professor
Department of Modern Foreign Languages
NTNU
7491 Trondheim
Norway
 
(Int + 47)73596787 (work)
(Int + 47)72887602 (home)
(Int + 47)90181427 (cellphone)
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