The Death of English

Gene Weingarten recently wrote a brilliant article summarizing what many of us editors have been thinking for years. The English language, having suffered the slings and arrows of poor copyediting and persistent abuse in both verbal and written forms, has given up the ghost.

Read it here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/13/AR2010091304476.html

My favorite bit: “[English] succumbed last month at the age of 1,617 after a long illness. It is survived by an ignominiously diminished form of itself.”

Well done, Gene. And well edited, too!

Newspapers Have Let Us Down

Gene writes that “newspaper publishers have been cutting back on the use of copy editing, sometimes eliminating it entirely.” He then cites several examples from newspapers both major and minor.

He is absolutely correct. And this is not a new thing. I remember back in high school (in the early 1990s), reading my hometown newspaper in Indianapolis, and being appalled at the number of mistakes I saw. Once, my cheeky teenage self even tore a page out of the newspaper, circled about a dozen mistakes with red marker like an English teacher marking up an essay, and mailed the entire page in to the paper’s editors with a note to the effect of, “Isn’t anyone copyediting this stuff?!” Shockingly, I got no response.

It’s so sad when newspapers let the rules of the English language slide. Many of us grew up thinking of newspapers as respected authorities. After all, they were the professionals. They’d been in the business of producing excellent written work for decades, sometimes hundreds of years. Editors and writers aspired to work for newspapers and were thrilled to land a job at one. If anyone could be counted on to treat the English language with respect, newspapers could, we thought.

Newspapers used to be the heroes of the written word. That’s why it’s so disappointing when they lower their standards. It’s like seeing any hero fall from grace.

I don’t know whether newspapers will survive at all in the long run, with the advent of online media. But I’d hate to watch them succumb to a slow, painful death, beginning with the deterioration of their high standards of quality.

Do Grammar Rules Have a Place in Modern Media?

Many writers, notably Lynne Truss in her book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, have asked this question before.

Is “correct” English doomed? Does the advent of self-publishing make the rules of good communication irrelevant?

I would argue that grammar rules are, and always will be, valuable and important. Their purpose is to make written language clear and easy to understand. Commas tell us where to pause. Proper spelling and punctuation makes it clear whether we mean their, they’re, or there. With well-structured text, the reader doesn’t have to waste energy tripping over errors and wondering what the author meant.

People who don’t care much for grammar rules seem to feel that the rules are nit-picky, inconvenient, and basically not worth bothering with. They seem to think that they can get their point across without sticking to some arcane rules that they barely remember from junior high English class.

I disagree. To me, poorly written text sends a message to the reader that that the author doesn’t care about whether or not the reader understands the text. And if you, the author, don’t care about my experience as a reader, I find that I care less about your ideas as an author.

As a side note, I’d love to know if this same question has been asked by speakers of other languages. Surely there are plenty of self-publishers in French, Spanish, Swedish, etc., and I’d bet they’re mangling the rules just as English speakers are. Are they, too, bemoaning the state of their beloved language and reporting on its demise?

What do you think? When you read a blog or other self-published work full of mistakes, does it make you have less respect for what you read? Or, are the ideas ultimately more important than how they are communicated?

The State of the Job Market for Writers and Editors

It’s no secret that the U.S. job market is dismal right now. Editing and writing have suffered as much as other fields, if not more.

When times get tight, companies start to skimp on editors and writers. Our work can often be done easily by freelancers, so it’s not unusual for us to be the first ones fired and the last ones rehired. Sadly, some companies stop editing their publications entirely because they just can’t (or won’t) spend the money.

Full-Time Jobs

The few salaried jobs that do exist for writers and editors are paying decently, from what I’ve seen. Not great, but OK.

The trick would be landing one of these scarce positions. In an economy like this, one’s odds of getting a writing or editing job by answering an advertisement are pretty slim. You pretty much have to know someone or have some other “in.”

Personally, I interviewed for six full-time editing jobs between January and April 2010. Number of call-backs: Zero. I felt lucky to get such a high number as six interviews, since I had applied for no fewer than 92 jobs during that time period.

Freelance/Contract Jobs

Freelance and contract writing/editing gigs have been hit hard too. There is work to be had, not least because many companies hire freelancers in lieu of hiring new permanent staff while they wait for the economy to improve.

Wages aren’t great, though, because the current supply of jobless writers and editors far exceeds the demand. It’s an employer’s market.

Outsourcing

Some companies are starting to outsource writing and editing work offshore. At best, this drives down wages at home. At worst, it prices U.S. freelancers out of the market completely.

Take TextBroker, for instance, an online service that offers pay in the range of $7.00 for an original, researched, error-free 500-word article. And they aren’t the only ones.

Many editors are angry and disturbed about their jobs being outsourced to developing countries. A common thought: “It’s one thing to outsource factory work. But communications work? Come on. People in Country X don’t even speak English as their native language. How could they possibly write or edit as well as a native speaker could?”

But the language barrier didn’t stop the call centers. Apparently it isn’t stopping some publishers either.

You Want to Pay What?

A sampling of recent Chicago Craigslist job postings in the “Writing/Editing” section:

• “L---- is a fast-growing content site with useful articles in channels devoted to a variety of popular topics… Pay is per article (generally $20 for a 650+ word article) and work is part-time, but we ask writers to commit to creating up to 20 articles per month.”
• “I need a writer to help write high-quality product reviews… Each assessment will be approximately 200-300 words in length… Compensation is $6 per completed post, to be paid biweekly by paypal.”
• “Editor for elderly author… Two or three 1 or 1 and 1/2 hour meetings a week with author… $11 per hour.”

· … And many other ads from companies that want to pay experienced writers/editors less than they could earn working at Starbucks. Many look to hire unpaid interns, a classic money-saving move.

Nice Work, If You Can Get It...

And if you get it, won’t you tell me how? Please comment and describe how the economy has affected your work. What trends have you seen?

Do We Need an “Angie’s List” for Freelancers and Clients?

Or: I Just Don’t Want to Visit Cook County Small Claims Court Ever. Ever. Again.

So, here’s the back story.

Last year, I did some freelance work for an Illinois publisher that I hadn’t worked for before. The people were very nice, their communications good. Their rates seemed very reasonable. I finished my assignment (editing a cookbook), turned it in on time, and submitted my invoice. A few days later, they sent me positive feedback on my work. Everything seemed hunky dory. I looked forward to working for them again.

Then, everything went sour. When they opened my invoice, they refused to pay me the amount that they’d agreed to in writing. They cited a clerical error, saying they’d quoted me the wrong rate. They asked if I would resubmit my invoice for the “correct” rate, which was less than one-third of what they’d quoted initially. I pointed out, politely, that the error was their own, that the terms of my contract bound them to pay me what they’d written down, and that I would not have accepted the assignment in the first place at the lower rate. Their response was, essentially, “Tough cookies.” When I hinted that I would go to small claims court over the matter, they tried to intimidate me, hinting back that it would be a waste of my time.

So I took them to court. When they got the summons, they consulted their lawyer and then settled out of court, paying me the amount that I thought I’d be getting paid in the first place. I could have argued further to have them pay my $175 in court filing fees. But at that point, I just wanted the whole painful mess to go away.

But Enough About Me

I am hardly the only freelancer with a story like this. Neither are stories like this unique to the publishing industry – I had a similar debacle with an employer back when I used to do promotions work.

Likewise, many publishers have been treated poorly by freelancers: missing deadlines, being unresponsive, turning in poor work, or generally being difficult to work with.

On the flip side, I’ve worked with publishers and agencies that were excellent. They treated their freelancers with respect, paid on time, resolved issues promptly, and generally made their hired help feel valued. And every publisher has a list of go-to freelancers who do fine work and are pleasant to deal with.

A Rating System for Us

Should we formalize and document all this knowledge? Do we need an equivalent of “Angie’s List” for the freelance industry? Should I start up a “Jen’s List”?

I sure would have liked to have a Jen’s List before accepting a job for the abovementioned client. It might have saved me a massive amount of stress and time.

Also, a Jen’s List could lead you to clients that you’d never considered before and forge new relationships beneficial to everyone. Times can be tight for freelancers when the work dries up temporarily. A Jen’s List could be a good source of places to make new professional connections and find work.

I imagine such a list being similar to Yelp in the sense that reviews can be anonymous or you can use a pseudonym to write your reviews. (I’ve never seen the real Angie’s List, so I don’t know how the reviews work there.) I also imagine it being free, not a pay service.

What do you think? Would a list like this one be useful? Would you use it, and how? How would you feel about being reviewed on the list yourself?

Proofreaders Are Born, Not Made

I can’t take credit for the phrase “Proofreaders Are Born, Not Made.” I don’t know who came up with it, but I saw it first on the excellent website, ProofreadNOW.com.

But I believe it’s true. I know a lot of people who are just natural proofreaders. And that’s true whether they work as professional proofreaders or not.

If you are a born proofreader, errors simply leap off the page (or screen) at you. You can’t NOT notice them. It would be like failing to notice a 20-piece band in clown suits climbing onto your subway car. And if you’re like most born proofreaders, you feel written language should be held to high standards. You get irritated when you read a so-called professional publication that’s full of grammatical errors. You think to yourself, “Don’t these people have any copy editors or proofreaders on staff? Don’t they value the quality of what they publish?”

If you are one of these people, you are sitting there nodding your head and going, “Yep.” If not, then you’re, well… not.

Can You Learn to Be a Great Proofreader?

Can someone be trained to be a proofreader? I’m not sure. We all learn the rules of grammar sometime in elementary school or middle school. But then, two paths diverge in a wood. Some people simply internalize those rules so that they become as natural as eating or walking. Others quickly forget what a participle is or why a misplaced modifier is a bad thing, and diagramming a sentence? Fuhgeddaboutit.

I think a person’s natural proofreading talents can certainly be honed, refined, and perfected. I am a proofreader by nature, but I often need refreshers on the particulars of the Chicago Manual vs. the AP Style Guide (which one uses the em dash with no surrounding spaces, again?! I’d have to look it up, though I think it’s Chicago). And I can never remember what a gerund is to save my life.

But you can’t go to school and major in Proofreading (can you?). I’ve never even seen a college course with that title, though I bet one exists somewhere. Some colleges offer editing certificate programs, and presumably proofreading is covered at some point.

Editing vs. Proofreading

Editing is a different story. There are many different types of editing, which I will talk about in another blog post. Editing is more sophisticated and conceptual, while proofreading is more technical. I believe you get better at editing the more you practice it. But your proofreading skills, being innate, are more static.

What do you think? Can a person learn to be an excellent proofreader? Or is proofreading a world of "haves" and "have nots"?

OOPS! Campaign Misspells Politician’s Name

Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski is running for re-election as a write-in candidate, having lost her primary to a challenger.

Unfortunately, in an online ad, Murkowski’s campaign spelled her name, “Murkwski.” The “O” in the middle went missing. Perhaps it came to Chicago to appear on the cover of Oprah’s magazine. But when the staffers discovered the error, I bet they shouted out plenty of “O”s – followed by the 4-letter expletive of their choice.

The irony of misspelling the name of a write-in candidate – in ads meant to teach voters the correct spelling of the name, no less – is rich, and has been covered already.

What I’m interested in is how a mistake like this was allowed to happen. Everyone makes typos, sure. But if any written matter is worth spending money to proofread, political ads are it. Murkowski has already been defeated in her primary as an incumbent, damaging her chances of keeping her seat in November. She sure as heck didn’t need to look like a dummy who can’t even spell her own name.

The Real Value

Proofreading is a highly undervalued service in our society. On Craigslist, you see people trying to hire proofreaders as cheap as $7-$10 per hour. I think they should be earning far more (but that’s a topic for another post). But many people who should be hiring proofreaders simply skip it, or do it themselves (why you should never proofread your own work is yet another post).

Preventing a blunder like Murkowski’s misspelling is worth its weight in gold, even if you’re not a politician. It’s never about the error itself. It’s about how the error makes you look: rushed, uneducated, careless.

And Lord knows the world didn’t need more jokes about the intelligence of female politicians from Alaska.

Hire a proofreader next time, Murkowski! If there IS a next time for you, that is.