Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Do You Use MS Word's Grammar Checker?

Do you use the grammar checker in MS Word? You know -- those squiggly green lines that appear below certain words or phrases that Word thinks are somehow incorrect?

Well, Word's computer brain is far inferior to the human brain when it comes to catching grammar mistakes. (Most editors already know this. I for one don't use Word's grammar checker at all. I consider it to be downright counterproductive, flagging things as incorrect that are actually correct and wasting your time in the process.)

Examples of Word's Bad Behavior

One of my favorite companies, ProofreadNOW.com, has pulled several telling examples of the MS Word grammar checker's inferiority. Read it here (PDF).

I love ProofreadNOW because they fight the good fight when it comes to polished, perfect English-language grammar. I mean, these guys are hard core. You wouldn't believe the strictness of the proofreading tests I had to pass in order to work for them years ago. They have two proofreaders review every job just to make double sure that nobody misses anything. If you need something proofread, I'd go to them if I were you.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

The Writing Process, with a Word or Two from Dean Koontz

My dream is to one day write a successful novel. If I could stop working altogether, and write full-time, and make a living at it, that would be professional nirvana for me.

So I like it when writers write about writing. (Did you make it through that sentence? Good.) I enjoy authors’ insights into their struggles during the writing process, and the keys to their successes. I like being able to relate to the author through their disclosures.

I also appreciate the common themes that emerge. For instance, even the most prolific celebrity authors talk about the long, grueling hours spent sitting on a chair and typing. No matter how awesome your ideas are or how fast you write, your butt will fall asleep at some point. Occupational hazard.

From Watchers (Which You Should Read, By the Way)

This excerpt is from the afterword to the suspense novel Watchers by Dean Koontz. It was originally published in 1987. A paperback edition came out in 2003, which is when Koontz wrote this afterword.

When I am writing a novel, I experience bleak spells of deep self-doubt about my work, moments of surging confidence, despair followed by joy—although there are usually more dark moments than bright. With Watchers, however, I knew only joy. The desire to write well can never be fulfilled without hard work, and Watchers involved as many hours at the keyboard and as much struggle as any book I've done; but in this case, all the time and effort was pure pleasure, because I was aware that I had a grip on a unique idea, special material, and a group of characters whose depth and warmth were greater than those in any book I'd written to that time. For days at a stretch, I found myself in what psychologists call a "flow state," a condition in which one performs far beyond what previously had seemed to be the peak of one's abilities, with greater fluency and speed and grace; it is similar to what athletes mean when they say they are "in the zone."

See what I mean? Koontz has written dozens of successful novels. Yet even he experiences self-doubt about his work. Stuff like that is so helpful to me as a writer. I ride that same roller coaster of doubt vs. confidence in my writing. It’s nice to know I’m not alone.

I also know what it is like to be “in the zone” like Koontz describes. Most writers have experienced this. It’s wonderful, isn’t it? The ideas just flow from your brain straight through your fingertips and onto the screen like you’re the world’s most efficient machine, and you feel somehow superhuman, or like you’re channeling some force that’s beyond yourself.

I’d never heard the phrase “flow state” before, but it sounds familiar. Sometimes I will get that way while writing, and my poor unsuspecting husband will come up and try to say something to me about something mundane, and I barely turn my head, much less register what he’s saying. I’m sure it seems very rude of me, so let me take this moment to say: Sorry, Hubs. But when you’re in the zone, you’re in the zone.

I think it’s a creativity thing. My husband composes music, and he has talked about being in the zone with that. So, as much as I might annoy him sometimes when I’m writing, he gets it. He usually gives up on me for the moment and tries again later, which is probably the best approach unless the house is on fire.

About the Author

As for Dean Koontz, the man can write a good story. Watchers is the only book of his that I’ve ever read, but the story was compelling enough, and the writing good enough, that I think I will be reading more of him. He seems like a pretty cool guy in addition to being a good writer. Later in the afterword mentioned above, he writes:

For the most part, as I have written essays for this series of editions, I have tried to keep them light and amusing, because although I take my work seriously, I never take myself seriously. The human species is a parade of fools, after all, and I am often at the front of the parade, twirling a baton.

Can you see why I like this guy? I think we need to have beers together.

Editing in a Foreign Language (Part 2)

I've now wrapped up the 2-week gig copyediting a Spanish-language magazine that I described in part 1. The magazine ended up being 80 pages long, a terrific learning experience, and full of the surprises that only deadline-driven publishing can bring ("Crap, we're going to press tonight and we need text for the spine... Jen, can you translate this in the next 5 minutes?!?").

Editing in Spanish has been an amazing experience, and I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to grow professionally. Still, I don't know if I would work for this company again if they offered me the job (which there's a chance they will), because:
  1. I'm not as good at it as I'd like to be. This may sound like perfectionism talking. But when I edit in English, it comes so naturally. I don't think consciously about it - I just go with my instinct of "this or that doesn't sound right" based on having internalized the English language since toddlerhood. And being a natural-born editor with many years of experience, I know I can knock most English-language projects out of the ballpark. Not so with Spanish. While this Mexico edition of the magazine was undoubtedly improved after my editing, I was more of a glorified proofreader on this project, editing for obvious errors and for length. Someone truly native would have done a better job.

  2. The company was not a good fit, in general. The people were nice enough, but overall the corporate culture was not for me. Working on an ancient eMac, where I squinted at the tiny screen and wasted at least 30 minutes every day dealing with the finicky "Suitcase" font management program, did not make the job any more appealing. The computer equipment was whatever the opposite of "the icing on the cake" is -- the lemon juice on the paper cut, perhaps.
All that being said, I learned a ton at this job. Here are my take-home lessons:
  1. Every proofreader of English looks at text with certain culprits in mind to watch for. It’s the same in Spanish, but the culprits are different. In English, it might be misplaced commas. In Spanish, it’s missing accent marks. Much is the same, however. Comma usage is very similar in both languages, and misused phrases are always important to keep an eye out for. Spanish, like English, has commonly misspelled words that can’t be caught by spell-check (e.g. cuarto/cuatro). You still have to watch for verb tense consistency and make sure that verb forms match subjects.

  2. I immediately started making a list for myself of vocabulary that I needed to remember. Business Spanish is something you don’t usually learn in school, or from your friends, or from traveling — and those were the sources of my Spanish-language education. An entire section of my vocabulary needed, and has now received, an upgrade.

  3. The absolute hardest part of my job was the knowledge I lack from not being a native speaker. It cannot be underestimated how integral phrases and colloquialisms are to any language. Misuse of a phrase, or use of an incorrect article within a phrase (e.g. wrongly using “depender en” instead of “depender de”) is an immediate signal to readers that the text was either written or edited by a non-native.

  4. Finding a dictionary that you trust is paramount. I used www.wordreference.com/es, which not only contains translations and full definitions in both English and Spanish, it provides copious examples of the uses of words within phrases. This was an enormous help. Bonus: the forums where you can talk to other Spanish speakers and learners to polish up certain phrases.

  5. I must accept my own imperfection. When editing in English, perfect grammar and punctuation are my goals, as well as making the text artfully written and flowing. In Spanish, since I’m not a native, my goals are different. I will never do as great a job as a native Spanish-speaking editor, at least not without a lot more practice. But I can make the text better, more accurate, and more consistent, and that’s a good thing.
Till next time!

Monday, January 17, 2011

The One Space/Two Space Debate

When you type, do you put one space after a period, or two? Are they both correct? Or does one of them make you a grammatical heretic to be shunned forever by the intelligentsia?

Last week, Slate.com took a fun stab at this issue. Read it here:

http://www.slate.com/id/2281146/pagenum/all/#p2

It's a Compelling Tale, But...

Slate's position is that it is NEVER correct to put two spaces after a period. They say that the only reason anyone ever followed a period with two spaces is because it looked nice when using certain fonts, on certain old-school typewriters, for a brief period of time in world history.

But I wish Slate had cited some sources. They discuss so-called historical events, acting all superior like THEY have the true story, and then just expect us to take them at their word. They do cite current sources: several style books that mandate one space after a period. But their bits about manual typewriters are just hearsay.

I checked my own copies of the Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition) and Associated Press Stylebook (copyright 2000) hoping for some reliable history on this subject. No joy.

It's What You Know

People feel strongly about this issue (just look at the comments after the Slate article). Personally, I just can't bring myself to get worked up about it. There are far worse grammatical (and typographic) crimes than one space vs. two.

In my high school typing class circa 1992, we were taught to ALWAYS put two spaces after a period. If Slate is right about monospaced fonts going out of style in the 70s, well, nobody told my teacher. Then again, our books for that class probably dated from that era...

Like many points of grammar, the way you learned it when you were in school is what sticks with you forever and ever, amen. Witness the "and I" issue. People grew up being corrected when they said things like "Jamie and me are going to the store." Some teacher or parent would be all, "That's Jamie AND I." Over the years, people internalized this lesson to such a degree that they now overcorrect and say things like, "Our preacher married my wife and I," which is dead wrong. It's not about the word "and" preceding the word "I" - it's about the word's function within the sentence (subject vs. object). But you just try telling that to Mr. Our-Preacher-Married-My-Wife-and-I. He'll fight you to the death.

I've been able to un-learn the two-spaces-after-a-period thing only because most of the publishing companies that I have worked for insist on one space. Most of them, but not all. Some insist on two spaces. I doubt the matter will be settled anytime soon.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Need to Read, and the Allure (or Not) of E-Book Readers

I always have a book going. Always. If I go a few days between finishing one book and starting another, I get antsy.

Most of what I read is fiction. I read nonfiction occasionally, but most of all, I love a good story. It’s like reading stories is not something I want so much as it’s something I need. I feel somehow impoverished when I don’t read a lot.

I have a feeling that this need to read is true of most professional writers and editors. Is it true for you?

E-Book Readers

I may one day own a Kindle. But I doubt I’ll ever stop reading paper books or get rid of the ones I own. As useful as technology is, I hate to be a slave to it. I don’t have to charge a book’s battery or learn any programming for it. And if it gets lost or stolen or falls into a puddle, oh well, I paid $10 for it, not $300. Know what I mean?

Since e-readers are so trendy, I thought I would see a ton of them when I recently started commuting on public transportation again (Chicago’s El train). But mostly, what I see are paperback books, with a few Kindles here and there. Of the people that I see reading, probably 50% are reading paperbacks, 10% are using e-readers, and 40% are reading who-knows-what on their smart phone.

What have you seen? Do you love your Kindle? If you have an e-book reader, has it caused you to get rid of books, much like people are getting rid of CDs once they rip all the tracks into their computer?

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Editing in a Foreign Language (Part I)

Have you ever done writing, editing, or proofreading in a language other than your native language?

I’ve had the opportunity to edit in Spanish at my last two contract assignments. Professionally speaking, it is the most interesting and challenging work I’ve done in years. This blog is called “Part I” because I have a feeling I’ll have more to report once I get further into my current gig.

Currently, I am copyediting a brand-new Mexico edition of a trade magazine for the construction industry. The English version has been around for decades. This Spanish version is the brainchild of a company executive out west.

“I can feel my brain stretching,” I told my Facebook friends last week. The areas of my mind that store all my Spanish are being re-energized, synaptic connections strengthened, old pathways repaved, old vocabulary remembered, new vocabulary learned.

Editing in Spanish is different than editing in English, in some ways, but in many ways it is strikingly similar. The two languages are similar enough that the basic elements – commas, participial phrases, etc. – are familiar.

But differences pop up where I didn’t expect them. For instance, in Spanish, if you want to say $2 billion, you don’t say “$2 billones.” You say “$2 mil millones,” which is literally “2 thousand million dollars.” With help from the excellent Oxford Spanish Dictionary and from our two freelance writers, I am learning these new facets of Spanish-language written communication.

More to come. Toward the end of this 2-week gig, I’ll talk more about what I’ve learned from the experience and what has helped me along the way.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear more about your experiences in this area.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Office Work Spaces

Do you work in a cubicle? Or are you lucky enough to have your own office, with a door you can close? Do you have your own cube/office, or do you share it with other people? How does your work setup affect your ability to do your job?

I have worked in the professional world for over 12 years now. In total, I've held 7 full-time jobs of significant length (not counting temp jobs or very short contracts).

Of those 7 jobs, only 1 job gave me my own office. The rest of the time, I was in an individual cubicle, a giant shared cubicle, a lab workbench, or a snowboard-type setup (basically a very long table with multiple computers on it).

The Pros and Cons

I understand the numbers. Cubicles cost less than offices. They also cut down on time theft. I did a bit more more goofing off when I had my own office. Not a lot more, but a bit more.

However, I feel cubicles have FAR more cons than pros. The cons include:
  1. An inability to concentrate. I find it extremely hard to focus on my work when some coworker is yapping in my ear from the other side of the cubicle wall. I can't hear myself think.

    This affects some professions -- like writers, editors, and proofreaders -- more than others. It affects some people more than others, too. Some people are simply better at tuning out noise than other people are.

    Nowadays, of course, you can drown out your coworkers by bringing music to work and plugging in your earbuds. Of course, this is not ideal because then you risk being distracted by your music.

  2. A total lack of privacy. Every word you say, every cough, every snack you eat, every creak of your chair, every buzz of your cell phone, every click of the mouse, every stroke on the keyboard -- your coworkers hear it all. They can also see and smell everything, and we've all had coworkers who did things that we wish we wished we could avoid seeing or smelling.

    The younger generation may not feel this way, but I have always found this lack of privacy demeaning. It's like a not-so-secret message from the company: "Our profits are more important than your dignity as a human being." And heaven forbid you need to make a personal phone call to your doctor, or -- if you're a nursing mom -- use a pump. Good companies provide dedicated rooms for such things, but many do not.

    If you're just starting out in your field, a lack of workplace privacy can be particularly bothersome. Everybody makes mistakes while they learn. When you work in a cube, your mistakes are laid bare for the world to see. If you're on the phone a lot for work, you'll have coworkers coming up to you after a call, suggesting how you could have handled the person better or a better way to phrase something. Depending on your personality, you may find that advice helpful, or profoundly irritating (because they were eavesdropping, for one, and giving unsolicited advice, for two).
In short, my professional opinion is that companies could vastly improve productivity and reduce turnover by investing in some interior walls for their office spaces.

What do you think?

Monday, January 3, 2011

Addictive Word Games

If someone who loves food is a foodie, then I have always been a wordie. As a kid, I wrote and read all the time (and still do), even when I didn't have to do it for class. I can geek out about etymology with the geekiest of them.

So it's no surprise that I adore word games. Crosswords, word searches, word scrambles, ciphers--bring 'em on!

My latest obsession is Word Twist on Facebook. As a wordie (not to mention a professional editor), I am appalled that I have managed to score only a pathetic sixth place among my friends.

The internet, of course, provides infinite opportunities to waste all of your waking hours playing word games. Then again, "Time enjoyed wasting is not wasted time," as one of my buddies quoted on her page in our college yearbook.

Tell Me I'm Not Alone

What are YOUR favorite word games? How addicted are you? Can you sit for hours at a time and play them until your eyes bleed and not regret a single solitary second? Do you prefer to play them on paper, or online?

Happy 2011, and happy word gaming!