Editing sensibilities

I'm an editor, pure and simple.

Oh sure, I can write, too. Usually with complete sentences and everything. My particular facility, though, is with bringing an exquisite precision to the already turned phrase.

My greatest work-wise treat is the proofreading gig. Give me a book-length proofreading project on just about anything (and a tight, sensible house style guide always helps), and I'll turn it around yesterday. I've never proofed a book or journal article that I couldn't stand. The process makes the meaning for me.

I grew up, professionally speaking, in the composition department of a well-known Midwest printing company as a proofreader and graduated to typesetting (briefly) and then copy editing. I wouldn't trade my foundation in technical proofreading for any other influence in my career. The training was exacting, deliberate, comprehensive. I was fantastically good at it, and the experience carries my editing sensibility today.

I've asked myself and, haphazardly, a handful of colleagues, How are publishers (I'm pretty sure most printers have dissolved or relocated overseas their comp departments_would love to hear if I'm wrong) training their proofreaders? Still in the dark, and somewhat concerned for this element of the publishing industry, I pose the question to you.

In the meantime, the working freelancer in me guides you (especially you who are looking to hire working freelancers) ever so gently to my profile on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/joyce-dunne/5/88b/903.

Best,

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

There. It's done. I bought a Kindle. Amazon wooed me, finally, with the right combination of wine and song: the graphite alternative to the original stark white, and the price decrease. Even sweeter (the lovely German chocolate at the end of the romantic dinner): I bought it on eBay for an even more palatable price. As someone who has made her living in the print world for lo these many years, I feel compelled to offer some justification. Well, first, all of a sudden, electronic is the way of the book, and I just don't know enough about e-reading, e-publishing, and e-more. Second, I love to read, and I like the sound of my own literary voice, so I've signed up with NetGalley to write book reviews (see one of my very early posts to this blog--my first attempt since 10th grade English class; Mrs. Youngs introduced them as the fearsome "critique"). This week I received my first approval from a publisher to review one of its books. I feel so important. Anyway, the poi...
Read more

A humble introduction to a haunting city

I first became acquainted with New Orleans by way of a pile of trash in a North Side Chicago alley. Therein lay an original painting by Donabeth Jones titled "Rue Royale." I was between original artworks at that time, having recently given away a creepy rendition of the Velvet Peanut Butter boy and yet to meet its replacement. So, under the "one man's trash" rule, I retrieved the painting, complete with a typewritten note by its artist glued to the back of the frame explaining its provenance. Said frame also featured a broken glass front and an ill-suited harsh orange matte border. After moving with me from one household to the next, and repeat, I finally took the painting to a framer and asked him to replace the glass and change out the matte to a more subtle, flattering theme. By then, I had visited New Orleans twice. The freshly dressed painting hangs in our living room. It depicts a typical scene in the French Quarter: two women walking by a building on Roya...
Read more

Career counsel

When people say, I've known since I was five years old that I wanted to be a [your career here], does that necessarily mean it's a good idea to pursue that career as an adult? Certainly this is no breakthrough in psychiatric analysis, questioning one's_my_career aspirations. But here I am anyway. I did pursue my career aspiration; I did say, in second grade (so I guess I was seven years old, ever the late bloomer), that I wanted to be a proofreader for a living. And I became one, in my first real job out of college. Did I know what a proofreader was at seven, at that wee, already literately jaded, age? Actually, yeah, kind of: someone who catches other people's mistakes in the safest possible forum, under the sanction of good grammar and style. But here's the couple of things about that: First, proofreading falls at the bottom of the editorial career spectrum and hence falls at the entry level of salaries. So, as any smart, agile proofreader does, I learned copy edi...
Read more