Punctuation and Other Frustrations
Week 3 of the course was all about punctuation. Some of it was downright boring. All of my previous English professors have drilled into me some basic punctuation. However, some of the subjects discussed-like hyphens and certain comma mistakes-were new to me. These are the things that I will need to continue to study and to practice.
The nitty-gritty bits of punctuation once again opened my eyes to all the elements of English that an editor must be able to catch. A good chunk of the readers will not notice a good percentage of the mistakes, but that is simply due to how the lack of proper punctuation is either not striking enough for them to care about, or is such an obscure issue that they were never taught about it. Does this mean that editors should be more lax about punctuation? No. Absolutely not. I only knew some of these rules from reading properly edited novels. These novels taught me a great deal, even if what I learned was all subliminal.
Apart from reading about punctuation, I also had a lovely hurricane named Irma to contend with this past week. I was anxious and left Jacksonville. I left mostly to squash my anxiety and enjoy a long weekend. My roommate thought that my leaving was ridiculous, but when your father orders you to go, you go. Those who stayed dealt with wind, rain, and loss of power; instead I was able to visit family, have power, and explore the town. What does this have to do with editing? I could say nothing. However, I could also say that it does. Some people cannot work right now; editors can work. They have their work home with them. So the power goes out? Work until the laptop battery dies. The laptop battery dies? Go read and polish up on your skills. It sounds ridiculous, but its the truth. It's also a cute little tie-in.
The nitty-gritty bits of punctuation once again opened my eyes to all the elements of English that an editor must be able to catch. A good chunk of the readers will not notice a good percentage of the mistakes, but that is simply due to how the lack of proper punctuation is either not striking enough for them to care about, or is such an obscure issue that they were never taught about it. Does this mean that editors should be more lax about punctuation? No. Absolutely not. I only knew some of these rules from reading properly edited novels. These novels taught me a great deal, even if what I learned was all subliminal.
Apart from reading about punctuation, I also had a lovely hurricane named Irma to contend with this past week. I was anxious and left Jacksonville. I left mostly to squash my anxiety and enjoy a long weekend. My roommate thought that my leaving was ridiculous, but when your father orders you to go, you go. Those who stayed dealt with wind, rain, and loss of power; instead I was able to visit family, have power, and explore the town. What does this have to do with editing? I could say nothing. However, I could also say that it does. Some people cannot work right now; editors can work. They have their work home with them. So the power goes out? Work until the laptop battery dies. The laptop battery dies? Go read and polish up on your skills. It sounds ridiculous, but its the truth. It's also a cute little tie-in.
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