Latent Print

Rules Are Not Shoes: Finding the Fit - The Subversive Copy Editor Blog

2011-03-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

Writers, copy editors, proofreaders, you have permission. Because we're informed by convention, we make editorial decisions with thrift. Not a blind application of the rules, our editorial decisions must fit; most of all, you must make them. With each piece, you run a course between the way people have read before and the way people can possibly read. While your editorial decisions will be likely always conventional, it's important to remember that they don't come from a book: They come from you, from a relationship with writing, from the objective of your project.

Let me cut short the editorial manifesto and simply re-post here, with a salute to Carol Fisher Saller for giving permission to writers, editors, and proofreaders who might have yet unrealized latitude. Thanks, Saller. I frequently turn to Chicago for my editorial starch and dairy. (Plus, the online edition is solid!)

Take the jump below to Saller's blog:

Rules Are Not Shoes: Finding the Fit - The Subversive Copy Editor Blog

China Childhood Memoir Published

2010-06-16T13:55:00.000-07:00

A few months back, I was called in by independent publisher Jossie Auerbach for a proofread of her 91-year-old grandmother's memoir. Auerbach's dedicated a couple years toward the book's release, and I'm proud to share the announcement that it's now available!

"Nanny refers to it as 'my little book,' but it really is an amazing book, and my grandmother is an amazing woman, as is her story. Charming, insightful, and funny," Auerbach says. Indeed My Nanking Home: 1918-1937 is a great recounting of grandmother Nancy Thomson Waller's childhood in China. Waller brings us to the time in between the wars, to culturally exotic and politically shifting lands, with her family and extended family—school mates, coolie's, cooks and gardeners, and neighbor Pearl S. Buck.

Reminisce how big and small the world has always been with your copy of My Nanking Home. The memoir is available by phone, 607-264-3951; email, office.willowhillpublications@gmail.com; and on the Web, www.willowhillpublications.wordpress.com. Cost is $15 plus shipping and handling, and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Pearl S. Buck Foundation.

Guidebook Boston Baby Published

2010-01-25T14:38:00.000-08:00

Months ago I had fun working with the manuscript of this book. Now, Boston Baby: A Field Guide for Urban Parents is available. The thumbs of Boston-area moms and dads are sure to wear out the pages of this parenting survival guide. Boston Baby points new parents toward adventures right outside the door, sometimes indoors (hello, winter recreation). With chapters about area child care and public schools, the book also stands out as an essential resource. Congrats to Union Park Press and author and Boston's DailyCandy Kids editor Kim Foley MacKinnon.

Portfolio Adds

2009-12-10T16:26:00.000-08:00

I've added recent copywriting work to my Mediabistro Freelance Marketplace portfolio.

Find my previews of recent Earshot Jazz Festival concerts on that portfolio page or click here. Also check out a keen profile of Mystic, Connecticut, for New England Condominium magazine.

BTW, heavy-handed copyeditor on that story? No team stands between the Connecticut Sun and that WNBA championship title. I mean no team: "Mohegan Sun even hosts the Women’s National Basketball Association team, The Connecticut Sun." If in doubt, leave that comma out, son. And, really, are they The Connecticut Sun or the Connecticut Sun?

Any restrictive clause or article capitalization stories to share? Yours, in comments.

Photo by Daniel Sheehan.

Need Copy Editors

2009-11-30T14:02:00.000-08:00

Svelte evil bosses and lead dancers of the corporate world, you still need copy editors. You need us for our commitment to the four Cs plus our ability to improve office morale with impromptu music video.

Came across this music vid by Mediabistro blog Fishbowl LA. I've a similar experience mixing my passions, talents, and work. Though not laid off, I'm for hire.

Editorial Peeve: Trend, Real Data

2009-10-03T13:04:00.000-07:00

At first I intended to post a simple rant, possibly an admonition, against a phrase I hear misused all the time. I deflated after a Google news search pulled the phrase up as early as 1894 and included about five million hits. About four million hits appear in this new millennium alone. The peak for the phrase comes in July 2009, about 3.5 million hits!

Why such a distinctive spike in data? I don't know, ask Malcolm Gladwell. Just a Google search can't be definitive. But hey, pull that data together with all the anecdotal tales of the phrasal offense, and we've got a case for petitioning the public speakers of the world to put a stop to this.

NPR copywriters, Obama speech writers, news reporters, just quit it. You've offended an otherwise cool-headed copyeditor. The next time you're writing or speaking about a wide range, it better be the Himalaya or some such, not just choices for fresh-baked pies. Sheesh.

Observe:
"Hey Jackson, what'dya want to do today?"
"Oh, I don't know, Skip. Boy, there sure is a wide range of great stuff to do."

Ludicrous, right? Leave your own, in comments.

Oh, and while we're on the subject, a variety will suffice. I don't think I want to make the effort to consider a wide variety all the time.

Business Card

2009-08-20T18:15:00.003-07:00

I’m looking for ways to re-market my resume here in Seattle. It’s a little static in MS Word. I’ve used up my Acrobat trial, and I’m not ready to shell out the $450 to regain access, so the hip pdf resume will have to wait. Even if software’s a business expense, I’m looking for ways to earn and save, not spend.
Check it out, Google Docs to the rescue.

What do you think? Readers, in comments.

Chesapeake to Puget Sound

2009-07-14T16:57:00.018-07:00

I left Boston fourteen days ago, and after an Independence Day weekend in Washington DC and on the bay's Middle River, I left Landenberg, PA. About thirty-five hundred miles later I'm in a SeaTac hotel with my travel partner, my dad, a budding journalist (thanks to satellite technology) .

We camped in state parks, national parks, and national forests; we ate at roadway diners and cooked up camp feasts with chance local ingredients; we left the van for some exercise (the van got a lot too) and brief encounters with the people and landscapes where we travelled. Anyone that has been on the road in America knows that praise amounts to understatement and awe can't capture enough.

This trip served as a bit of a vacation for me; mostly it's a move of my freelance biz (editorial and otherwise) and my life back to Seattle. Many thanks to my friends and coworkers in Boston and elsewhere.

I've adapted my dad's wireless updates from the last ten days on the road below:

Day 1

Schraepfer and I left PA at 10:30 Sun morn and made it just 25 miles south of Michigan, east of Toledo, OH, on Maumee Bay, which opens onto Lake Erie.

Day 2

Today we drove about 225 miles and stopped in Muskegon, MI, and had lunch with my 90 year young Uncle and his wife. He was in the process of digitally editing music on his PC (running XP and using Sound Forge to clean up the files, for you techies) and entertaining his wife's son and grandson. She prepared a great lunch, and we are on our way north to the Upper Peninsula to camp tonight.

Day 3

Traverse City -- cherry capital of the world -- happened to hit upon the National Cherry Fest today. Saw the Native American cultural heritage portion. Off to the Upper Peninsula.

Day 4

So, after the Day 3 pic of the festival in Traverse City, MI, we drove about 160 miles across to the Upper Peninsula and stayed on Lake Superior at Bay Furnace State Park in Christmas, MI.

Today we drove 450 miles across Wisconsin into central Minnesota to the headwaters of the Mississippi (you can step across it!). The real treat was meeting up with C and his girlfriend Erika who have been in Alaska and Canada. Basically the old story about two trains leaving stations, where do they meet? Bemidji, MN.

Day 5

Schraepfer and I traversed North Dakota after leaving central Minnesota today. We are in Theodore Roosevelt park on the Little Missouri not far from where Teddy came to hunt and cattle in 1880s. Simply beautiful hanging under the cottonwoods!

Day 6

Stellar day. Went mountain biking in the North Dakota badlands and grasslands. Schraepfer's maiden voyage (it was his idea) and amazing sites, animals (feral horses, bull who made us get off the road), weather, exercise.
Followed up by some brewskis and our first shower of the trip -- what could be better? Oh yeah, doing some laundry.

Day 7

Well, we left Medora, ND, (will definitely be going back) and crossed Montana to Glacier Nat. Park. Today was green grasslands, huge big sky, Native Am. res', and cool little towns and a big wind turbine farm (couple hundred).

But we stopped in Lewistown, MT, at a farmers market and chatted it up with two Hutterites (think Amish with a flair) and bought some great bread and chokecherry jam (Lewistown is capital of chokecherry).

Beautiful weather but it will probably get to freezing tonight.

Day 8

Hard to describe the majesty of the peaks and valleys in Glacier Park. Another beautiful day, with a nice hike up to (no) Fish Pond to try out Schraepfer's new fishin pole but the only things biting were skeeters and black flies. Otherwise every view is awesome here.

Day 9

Well, the pic sums up our drive, lots o' rain from western MT, thru Idaho and then beautiful skies in eastern WA. Vineyards and farms. Last full day tomorrow, no more country stations singing 'bout "gave up smokin, women and drinkin, worse 15 minutes of my life" or "honky tonk badongadonk" or "drinkin on sat., prayin on sun." etc.

Day 10

Another stellar day from eastern WA (big country, big vineyards and fields of fruit, etc.) into big mts (Cascades) thru tall Douglas fir and Pacific silver fir back on the grid.

Thanks for travelling with us.

Sports guide copyedited

2009-06-19T08:50:00.005-07:00

The Die-Hard Sports Fan’s Guide to Boston: A Spectator’s Handbook by Christopher Klein, from Union Park Press, offers sports fans the first and only comprehensive guide to the range of sporting events on offer in and around the Greater Boston area. From minor- and major-league baseball, football, basketball, and hockey to soccer, golf, tennis, and college teams, Klein sets the city’s sports history against practical information for devoted Boston sports fans.

Get a copy at Amazon.com or at local bookstores. Turn to the guide to be in the know about New England sporting events all year. To learn more about the book, visit Union Park Press.

Also keep an eye on the Union Park Press website for upcoming events all summer long. Klein will be speaking about The Die-Hard Sports Fan’s Guide to Boston as well as Union Park Press’s inaugural book, Discovering the Boston Harbor Islands: A Guide to the City’s Hidden Shores, at a variety of venues in and around the Hub.

Know-it-alls, feel free to abuse my inbox with punctuation errata after you’ve bought the book and pored over every mark. Really though, an astounding comprehensive guide. Congrats to author Chris Klein.

Grammar: Not always high brow

2009-05-28T15:32:00.009-07:00

Sergeant Anous, formally with the normal police, now with the Grammar Police, has a word with Timmy Blumpkin, contraction violator and reigning douchenozzle, then busts cheat sheet dealer.

Sergeant Faraday responds to a domestic grammar dispute.

I'd like to think I'm more judicious about the use of force. But I do keep fresh Duracells in my grammar tazer and holster full of pens. Lol Grammar Police. Gotta love your copy editor.

Autocorrect: Not so common typos

2009-05-21T07:37:00.009-07:00

You already know to look out for the common typos and homophones. Train your eye for the errors on you’re own time. Their everywhere. Often the errors involve the apostrophe; sometimes its a simple typo. Spelling and grammar checkers might alert you, but you should perform the check to. If deadline’s got you on editorial triage, than at least please your client by not missing those common mistakes.

Depending on your project, at-risk words likely have an impostor standing by. You can sharpen your project-specific proofreading by customizing Word. For instance, if you’re working on reports for public entities, save yourself unnecessary embarrassment: Tools/AutoCorrect Options/Replace: pubic/With: public (unless you’re working on docs for a pediatrician).

Be careful with AutoCorrect. The printed world is still in need of a proofreader. You’d do well to keep an eye out for less common typos too. Corrections of the following mishaps mark a triumph for the profession:

calendar | calender
compiled | complied
compliant | complaint
filed | field
form | from
of | if

How ’bout it proofreaders of the world? Expand on that list in comments.

Hot for Typo

2009-05-20T17:39:00.001-07:00

Many folks are fond of critiquing public signage; some even take vigilante action (as reported by blog Laughing Squid). Here's one from the Boston Public Library's special reserves desk near the sixty-minute Web room:

Check back in 30 minutes if your pager doesn't flashes.

Pretty advanced verb agreement stuff going on here. The present tense, third person auxiliary verb, with negation, doesn't, is correctly paired with the subject, your pager [it]. But flashes is conjugated to match the third person too: it flashes. Huh?

Here's what Latent Print pulls from trusty ol' MW's Collegiate (spend more time with your dictionary, k?): In the auxiliary form, do is "used with the infinitive without to to form present and past tenses ... in negative sentences." If all that grammar gibber sounds as ridiculous to you as the above sentence, you're probably fine just trusting what sounds right to you: Check back in 30 minutes if your pager doesn't [to] flash.

Beware, however, that a simple fix could throw the author's meaning even further from the mark. What if the author meant to direct you to check back if the pager flashes? What if it's a rogue doesn't? Oh my.

How do these flubs get printed? Latent Print readers, I leave the imaginary journey of that sentence to you, in comments.

Elements and the Mod Copy Editor

2009-04-27T09:19:00.013-07:00

Plenty of comments and much debate to keep grammar-teurs busy here in a New York Times piece last week announcing a fiftieth anniversary edition of Elements of Style. The ol' manual does offer sound advice on an approach to writing. Further, it prepares a copy editor for inevitable encounters with self-proclaimed sticklers and grammar junkies.

Without that book, a flabbergasted copy editor might have no explanation for why an author would insist on particular usages. Strunk and White's work, or nuns, have entrenched prescriptionists and some authors. Whereas in the modern copy editor's library, that ubiquitous go-to manual has become a field guide for the copy editor to the prescriptionist camp and to some authors' origins. Strunk and White's work reminds us that conventions, not rules, shape American grammar, and the relevancy of those conventions will vary from author to author, project to project.

Copyeditor’s Folly

2008-12-15T10:14:00.005-08:00

Freelancers’ marketing commonly resorts to a rhetorical question. They’ll open their website, say, with, "Why do you need the services of a copyeditor?" Then follow with some aggressive prose about making communication sparkle and shine.

That the question doesn’t posit the profession’s demand as self-evident disturbs me. One rarely can claim a faulty valve repaired that is obviously broken, but everyone knows what is right about our language and gets away with knowing it? As the need for a plumber in certain instances goes without question, so too should the need for a copyeditor.

The urge to declare worth rhetorically comes from the nature of copyeditors’ work as both descriptive and prescriptive. (Not, we hope, from issues of esteem.) The copyeditor needs context to discover the solution to punctuation problems. Sometimes the copyeditor even needs to learn the author’s intent. Then with each prescription, the copyeditor disclaims thus: based on the information and prior treatments, plus the desired outcome and your given creative direction, I think A is a solution to the problem, though B might work equally well.

But the client hires for the prescription. They want solutions that can be applied consistently, standardized. Perplexed about how to market for the fixed and the fluid, the copyeditor markets by rhetorical claim, as if the Why? is commonly understood veil. The device seems weak. Maybe it works. I don’t know.

Even dictionaries claim little more than their descriptive value, as in Houghton Mifflin’s American Heritage College Dictionary, "A dictionary documents a language at a particular point in time." In a copy department or creative atmosphere, one would expect conversation to come of situations with no fixed solution. Alas conversation is rare; people still believe in a right and a wrong and turn to the published works, or the copyeditor, for either.

Copyeditors, we’re not selling perfect grammar and spelling, though it comes with the package, we’re selling modern usage; naturally, I within the realm of my expertise.

Thanks to commenters on Jan Freeman’s recent "The Word" column in the Boston Globe for inspiring this post. Also thanks to a family friend; talking about my job at a holiday party reminded me that there is inspiration in my work.

Jazz Cat Glossary

2008-11-12T12:48:00.004-08:00

I take the cross-country night flight home to Somerville, Mass., today. The Earshot Jazz fest was great. Much of the written word that surrounds music comes as previews, reviews, and press material, but there's no shortage of colloquial spoken word, appropriately enough for an ephemeral medium. Choice verbiage in the jazz cat glossary: cat, mother fucker, horn, dig, killin, vibin.

Your turn, in comments.

Freelance: Earshot Jazz Festival

2008-10-10T13:47:00.006-07:00

Next Tuesday I'll leave Boston for a one-month gig in Seattle. My freelance life allows me to take that time on the left coast for a gig with the Earshot Jazz Festival. I've rallied volunteers by email in recent weeks. When I arrive I'll begin day-to-day production: airport runs, gear swaps, coordinating volunteers.

Check out a couple of my short writing assignments in the web-based guide to this year's festival: Aaron Parks and the Here & Now Quintet.

Punctuate Deliberately

2008-08-26T19:16:00.005-07:00

By way of rhetorical question in her recent Word column in the Boston Globe, Jan Freeman tells us why she thinks today’s male writers hold disdain for the semicolon. They are insecure about a loss of masculinity in their profession, she says. We can’t fault Freeman for sexing the semicolon, but she goes too far when she gives women the mandate to choose the use of the mark in their prose because it is, as the fair sex, nuanced and complex. As if today’s male writers that eschew the mark are void of nuance and complexity?

To get to this point, Freeman reports on characterizations of the semicolon by Trevor Butterworth in 2005—the mark’s nuanced and complex. And she references semicolon-hater Vonnegut and punchy Hemingway to illustrate a semi-point by Ben McIntyre in the London Times: “Real men, goes the unwritten rule of American punctuation, don’t use semi-colons.”

If either gender uses the semicolon because of its complexity or because it’s been sexed, think of your readers. Would they benefit more from splitting up those independent clauses and giving each its due measure of detail? Or would they benefit more from slurring the clauses together with a middle-of-the-road mark? If the prose doesn’t benefit from more detail or a coordinating conjunction, it’s possible that the author is playing punctuation polemics instead of writing with intent, let alone nuance.

Though joining two independent clauses with the mark can be effective, that doesn’t mean it is. And to justify its use simply as a matter of taste, as Freeman concludes, brings us into a world of punctuation relativism. Subjectivity shouldn’t govern the mark’s use. That is, it shouldn’t be used for what it is, but for what it does case-by-case. As the semicolon can clarify—splitting elements in a list that contains internal punctuation—so can it perplex. The mark’s best used deliberately.

As always, excellent semicolon usage welcome in comments.

Busy Blogger Schraepfer parties, writes, deadline gripes

2008-08-11T17:48:00.011-07:00

Though proof-reading on-site here has kept me busy, I still get to party (at a Mediabistro event with blogger colleague the Urban Muse, left) and write about jazz artists for Earshot Jazz in Seattle.

Time’s been the discussion at work recently. Two weeks ago I warned a super. that I’d be working overtime. I initiated the conversation to avoid that freelancer’s faux pas.

I’ve made noise about deadline and overtime for two reasons:
1. I’m asked to do more than what I’m compensated for
2. If they don’t want me to work overtime, we’ve got to permanently re-figure those deadlines

I was in danger of doing the same last week. Instead I asked for help adjusting deadlines, and then I went to Maine on Friday at noon.

Before I left for the weekend, I presented my own time-per-job-type targets and breached the subject with the copy chief that I’d been working beyond the scope of the job description. (Understand that one proofreader has been asked to review nearly 170 promotions per month by about a dozen copywriters, distributed by some dozen-or-so promotions managers, all with no prior enforcement of the company’s house style.) Now I’m to present a new job description, which might lead to a raise or a lighter work load or no change.

In the new job description, I’ll distinguish between proofreading and copyediting, two distinct jobs albeit with some overlapping responsibilities.

The aim of all this is to reach a sustainable pattern at work. With some rhythm, the place can turn away from recklessness in a little more than a year, and maybe I can turn away from hanging on to the hourly wage.

The end of full-time freelancing? As yet, not likely. I’m guarding my doubts and positioning for the next opportunity.

Joslin Proofread

2008-07-28T16:14:00.003-07:00

A sample (5MB warning) of one of my freelance proofreading projects can be found here.

6 Ways to Freelance Fulfillment

2008-07-22T17:02:00.004-07:00

Knowing what elements of the job to leave undone is one challenge you’ll find on proofreading gigs or copyediting gigs, perhaps any freelance gig. On a freelance project, your supervisor will expect you to be on the ball at every turn, do good, consistent work, and bill the absolute minimum for it. Here’s a list of six ways to make sure you accomplish all of the above while not being afraid to take a break for lunch:

1. Arrive before the staffers in the morning. If you take advantage of the morning calm, you can review relevant work directives, get a jump on deadlines or that email inbox, and give the job in front of you due diligence.

2. Ask questions. Coworkers will appreciate a freelancer that shows this initiative, and you’ll learn how to make the job easier on everyone.

3. Bring your expertise to the table. You’re a freelancer. You’ve been hired for it. Your boss wants what you’ve advertised.

4. Don’t give too much, tempting as it might be. Find a balance somewhere above the minimum without sacrificing the application of your expertise. You can’t be consistent by bringing everything you’ve got to the table at every moment. A balance saves everyone from stress.

5. Take a break. You’re entitled by law, and a well-timed break for lunch in Chinatown can help you recharge while avoiding a charge to your client for overtime.

6. Track your time on each job accurately. With a clean record, you can easily justify your billed hours and see where you might need to improve; your supervisor can see where resources might be better managed; you both will see how great a job you’re doing.

Niche Readers

2008-07-18T10:44:00.004-07:00

Eric Alterman’s article at The Nation seems hyperbolic to me. “The loss of daily newspapers is a significant threat to the future of our democracy,” he says. Really? Maybe it’s a threat to the loss of the democracy controlled by the folks that still read the newspaper.

How many border-town immigrants read their local paper? How many foreign nationals read their local daily? They can go online and fetch the news from their home country. Alterman points out that the youth aren’t too interested in reading the paper either. So, I just don’t get it. How is the loss of the daily a threat to the future of our democracy? Sounds like a threat to the future of Stuff White People Like.

He’s correct to point out the discrepancy between newspaper performance and gigantic executive salaries: “These figures, one can only conclude, are entirely unrelated to performance,” he says. Isn’t that how it works in all businesses, especially in this country? More centralized corporate control means more money for the central controllers. This is its own problem.

The loss of the daily paper is the future of our democracy. Those centrally controlled, corporate-owned media outlets will be replaced by point source information, not necessarily in print, defined by niche readerships. How many types of people own a cell phone? This point source flow of information gives a diverse citizenry relevant outlets, instead of a homogeneous mass of corporate controlled media.

Threat to the future of democracy? Like I said, I just don’t get it. As far as I can tell politics is covered in a section of the paper.

You tell me.

Red Line, Arrrggghhh

2008-07-15T05:15:00.004-07:00

Red Line broken.

I liked working the last assignment in the suburbs. I drove. I parked for free.

At ten to seven this morning, I got on a train in Porter Square, later herded with the rest of the commuters to shuttles waiting at Harvard. Here I am now at work.

So much for getting the jump on those deadlines.
Is it funny that a proofreader commutes on the Red Line? And that the Red Line would turn against its master? Guess I should be sparing with those swooping lines, arrows, and carets.

T passengers, it's happened to you. On-site freelancers, adjust accordingly.

Central Proof

2008-07-14T19:46:00.004-07:00

Adapting to a new proofreading gig is usually pretty tough. Now that I’m doing the work it would normally take two proofreaders to do, while trying to avoid billing overtime, adjusting is taking a little longer.

Two problems present themselves at the new gig: One, the house style has grown cobwebs. It hasn’t been updated since 2005. New writers don’t even know it exists. Two, the volume of work is more than I’ve ever done alone. I remember lots of promotions and other projects running at REI, but at least there I could benefit from the guidance of the staff proofreader. Plus they had a central proof room—less intimidating than a pile on the desk?

Now, it’s me. I’m it. And I’m torn between committing my self to the job completely, in hopes that it’ll make the project easier as it goes along, or balancing the minimum work necessary to survive, as the proofreader before me likely did.

I don’t get paid enough to work my ass off there. I’m a freelancer. Do I give up the steady work for offers coming in that are higher pay but more sporadic? A case of the Mondays?

No, no, I’ll continue on and contribute my best work. Tomorrow I’ll sit in on the writers’ afternoon meeting.

Any suggestions for items to bring to the floor?

Equal Variants

2008-07-09T20:02:00.003-07:00

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features spelling equal variants.

Your house dictionary should be the first resource to determine preferred spelling of equal variants. Chicago 7.1 tells us that the stylebook prefers the first variant given in the dictionary listing. And so prefers AP Stylebook, p. 72.

In The Copyeditor’s Handbook, Amy Einsohn allows more slack. She tells us that for equal variants either is acceptable. “For equal variants,” she says, “the copyeditor’s job is to note on the style sheet which variant the author has used and to enforce consistency throughout the manuscript,” p. 125. The equal variant spelling catalogue should appear thus, if that’s the author’s preference. She lists other equal variant spellings from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate on that same page.

British variants are to be Americanized per the stylebooks above. Don’t leave your dictionary at home. You might need it to keep up with these guys.

A Proofreader’s 7 Tips

2008-07-08T20:05:00.007-07:00

Fellow blogger and freelancer Susan Johnston advises Mediabistro-membership freelancers to diversify by using writing’s related skills. The piece features freelancers’ comments on augmenting income by fact checking, adding artwork, moderating blogs and my comments on proofreading. Check out this excerpt from Mediabistro:

If you’re patient and detail-oriented, then proofreading could be a good side gig for you. Schraepfer Harvey is a writer and editor in Somerville, Mass., who earned a certificate in editing from the University of Washington Extension program. He’s carved out a niche proofing catalogues and other marketing materials for clients including REI, EF Tours, Joslin Diabetes Center, and Northeastern University.

Most of Harvey’s gigs are on-site and involve looking at page proofs, which are then passed on to the graphic designers. “If a writer decides to pick up a proofreading gig [it helps if the person] has a basic knowledge of the software,” he says. “You don’t know have to know all of the commands, but you should know what limitations or possibilities there are with the software. It’ll help you get along with designers if everyone [speaks] the same language” Usually this means having a familiarity with desktop publishing programs such as Quark or InDesign.

Often, Harvey points out, a gig that’s advertised as copyediting or proofreading will involve both skills. (The Chicago Manual of Style details the differences between proofreading and copyediting.) Either way, he says you have to “stay on track and keep an eye on the prize” so you don’t get too wrapped up in modifiers or syntax and the client gets their piece printed on time.

I encourage using writing’s related skills to boost income. However, it does disservice to professionals in the field if you’ve not cultivated the skill set first. Here’s seven tips:

1. Take a professional editing or proofreading class
2. Be prepared to work on-site
3. Know the appropriate styleguide and use it
4. Designers are your friends
5. Don’t ever re-write material
6. Don’t do more than what you’re paid for
7. Don’t fight over punctuation marks. Make deadline your focus instead

Eye on the prize, did I really? Oh my.

Your thoughts, in comments.

News in Neglect

2008-07-03T06:38:00.006-07:00

In a New York Times blog post here, National Book Award winner Timothy Egan stops shy of asking subsidy to buoy the newspaper industry. Instead he appeals to Americans’ sentimentality. “My lament this Fourth of July is to ask readers to see newspapers as not just another casualty in the churn of business,” he says. No? Should we see newspapers as the industry that gave superhero aliases a day job? Though an emotional plea, Egan doesn’t ask us to save the newspaper industry. He asks something more important: to inform ourselves wisely.

In the piece he warns of specious centralized news gathering. Centralized wire services, like AP or Reuters, attract many blogs, but are stiff and threaten local reporting, Egan says. “Web info-slingers will find that you can’t produce journalism without journalists, and a search engine is no replacement for a curious reporter,” he says. Furthermore, bloggers won’t work for free for indefinitely.

Blogs might depend on news wires, and in turn readers link to local newspaper Web sites. Despite greater electronic distribution reaching larger audiences, even affluent cities can’t keep a profitable newspaper, Egan writes. Though everyone wants the news, no one wants to pay for it.

Newspaper casualties signal that kind of disconnect. The loss of newspapers follows our economic system’s tendency to allow bridges, levees, schools, and other infrastructure to verge on collapse while favoring the latest trends in riches. Without wholesale re-evaluation and action regarding where we invest our interests, we are eventually, all of us, casualties in the churn of business.

Your thoughts, in comments.

Accuracy Paramount

2008-07-02T20:03:00.004-07:00

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features editorial interpolation.

Brackets are the preferred punctuation for editorial interpolation. Convention allows bracketed material for clarification, with occasional silent corrections, or syntactical pronouns.

The Gregg allows interpolation for clarification, ¶282; so does Chicago, 6.104, 11.68; and Einsohn, p. 210. AP states a strict standard: “Never alter quotations even to correct minor grammatical errors or word usage,” p. 207. Though later, p. 333, the stylebook allows for interpolation, in parentheses, when an explanatory editor’s note follows the story.

Clarification of quotes should be done before typesetting, but copyeditors should beware bracketed material. An interpolation misinterpreted can be a publishing embarrassment. Query the editor if interpolation seems inappropriate.

If an author’s diligence to full, clear quotes fails, a fair paraphrase is their course to safety. They should expect the editor to query. If the editor must add bracketed material, clarification should be the obvious motive.

Ever had words put in your mouth?

Talk Well, People

2008-07-01T14:52:00.004-07:00

I’ve yet to score a gig via independent marketing channels. Without agency help, I’d have fewer stellar companies on my roster. Last week I direct marketed for a blog gig, a proofreading gig, and an associate editor gig. By Thursday, I’d decided to check in with the ol’ agency folks. Ta-da, interview for a long-term proofreading gig Monday. Today, I accepted.

I’m appreciative for the work that the agency does. As a Boston transplant, their staffing cred plus my resume has made a minor splash. Now I’m contracting long-term gigs. Shouldn’t my agent be taking me out to lunch? Cha-ching. Share the lunch love.

In Tatum Greenblatt’s recent profile by me in Earshot, the trumpeter shares marketing technique: “The most important thing you can do is to sound good and be responsible and have people talk well about you to other people, and then you get the gigs.”

My resume is on the top of the pile out there. I’ve demonstrated that past successes are no fluke. Are people talking?

Two contacts did come in Monday from Mediabistro. It does pay to position on the Web. One was an agency I’d met with in the past—woops, update that database. The other was a copywriter here looking to build a pool of freelancers. I’ll meet with her on Thursday before their office closes early for the holiday. If I’m fit for the pool, it’ll be a great contact to have.

Profile: Tatum Greenblatt

2008-07-01T06:12:00.003-07:00

Here's my profile of trumpeter Tatum Greenblatt in this month's Earshot Jazz.

Fuller Fabulous

2008-06-30T14:08:00.012-07:00

Don't expect any secrets to be revealed in this New York Times story about celebrity-genre editor Bonnie Fuller.

The article: Gossip glossy wonder editor earns multi-millions for pub. execs, pisses off various staffs, expects success on Web. New York still hates her.

But, "My ability to connect with women has allowed me to break through," Fuller says in Sunday's Business cover article. How exactly does she connect with women? With what women does she connect? Is she really getting away with cashing in on geek chic?

Why do we care? Oh yeah, because according to Fuller in 2006, Britney Spears' crotch cradles the future for young women journalists.

Head to blog Gawker to share Fuller-fueled vitriol.

Punctuation Polemics

2008-06-27T12:29:00.007-07:00

Here's a fun report on the semicolon from Slate.
I'd attribute the ire that mark generates to it's middle-of-the-road nature.

Either you punctuation do yes or you punctuation do no. Wax on, Wax off, man.

Safe advice from Mr. Miyagi.

LP Applies, Associate Editor

2008-06-26T13:35:00.012-07:00

A recent cover letter:

I’m applying through Mediabistro.com for the Modern Materials Handling Associate Editor position. I enjoyed Ms. Kator’s “Protective Packaging Basics” article in a recent issue online; I’m sorry she is leaving, but excited by the open opportunity at Modern Materials Handling.

Like Ms. Kator, I’ve a history with the University of Washington. In 2006, I earned an editing certificate from the university’s extension program. I then interned at a local design magazine in Seattle. After the internship, I continued freelancing as a writer for the magazine, as an editor for Earshot Jazz magazine, and as a retail catalog proofreader for REI. I’ve had steady proofreading business since moving to Somerville in January. You can learn more about my editorial history at my LinkedIn profile.

Links to my editorial resume and my blog about freelancing are at my Mediabistro portfolio. In addition to service pieces for homeowners and custom advertisements there, a recent proofreading sample titled “Custom Trifold Proofread” will interest you. This U.S. EPA compliance document has much the same goal as MMH: to improve the supply chain, in this case, by providing informative content to consumers of drinking water. I enjoyed editing those documents.

Some of my qualifications don’t come from editorial experience. I worked as a Pizza Delivery
Driver (that’s materials handling) and as a Retail Warehouse Shipping Manager. Some of my Shipping Manager successes are listed on my attached resume, but let me share with you one management story that illustrates why I’m fit to bring content to the MMH audience to help them understand and improve their link in the chain:

I once rounded up our small shipping staff on a slow day for an impromptu field trip to Seattle’s new Terminal 5, where some of our imported goods were. A tour organizer accepted, on short notice, my request to tour. Some memorable moments from the tour were seeing Eastern Washington onions for export in containers with doors removed to prevent rot; being dwarfed by facility equipment while driving the grounds in the director’s minivan; and being x-rayed when crossing secure pier boundaries.

Thanks for taking the time to review my application.

I know, it's not a freelance project. Maybe one day I'd like to get paid for Independence Day, okay?

The best part of that cover letter, zero bullshit. Albeit maudlin fascination, I enjoy infrastructure. I share with the Deco artists of yore an awe before the human machine.

As always, your thoughts in comments.

Punctuation Aesthetics

2008-06-26T08:47:00.004-07:00

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features fonts and punctuation.

Chicago’s lead entry in its section on the treatment of punctuation aesthetics, verse 6.3, warns of a “departure from Chicago’s former usage.” It’s a hint that some editors or clients might prefer what the stylebook calls a “more traditional system.”

Chicago presents the traditional system as an alternative system, verse 6.5. The alternative system asks us to give punctuation, with exceptions for question marks and exclamation marks, the same font as the previous word. The calendar that I formerly edited here tends toward that alternative system.

The convention for boldface, for example (look, bold comma follows): The Earshot Jazz Festival, now in its 20th year, features local, national, and international musicians in various Seattle venues October 17–November 2.

The Gregg states the convention for italics: “When you use italics to give special emphasis to words or phrases in a series, it is customary—for reasons of appearance—to italicize any accompanying marks of punctuation” (¶290b).

Chicago’s departure is evidently slow to catch on. Amy Einsohn tucks it in a note in her The Copyeditor’s Handbook: “A newer convention calls for all punctuation to be set in the style of the running text” (p. 316n). Her treatment of the convention, p. 114, tends to that older system, as we might also expect from our editors and clients.

Latent Print departs, per Chicago, for that newer convention. This means that the Earshot comma above doesn’t share the bold of the previous word. It also means punctuation won’t carry italics or hyperlinks.

The newer and older conventions require the copy editor or proofreader to scan changes of font—don’t forget hyperlinks—to ensure that punctuation is consistent with house preference.

For Stringers

2008-06-25T19:11:00.003-07:00

Here is a new freelancer’s bulletin board. Sign me up.

I found the networking site, and their blog, through a forum post at Jazz Journalist’s Association online.

The Berkeley product developers take an exciting stance. Could it end up just being another crowded networking site? Business plan a la Mediabistro, acquired ten years in?

Anyway, here’s to bloggers and decentralizing the news. Here’s to the enterprising folks on the San Francisco Bay. As I said, sign me up.

Styleguide Wednesday, on Thursday this week.

Targeting Email Introductions

2008-06-24T19:33:00.003-07:00

Tired of searching around the same employment bulletin board? Leads drying up? It’s not the economy. Expand that network. If one of your target companies isn’t advertising the position you want, don’t shy from introducing yourself.

All the Web positioning—blog, online portfolio, online profile—doesn’t replace meeting people and sharing your know how over a cup of coffee. Though email is the primary method of introduction, what one needs, really, is to get out there.

Today I used a target company’s copywriter advertisement to draw attention to my specialties. By email, I initiate thus: “Though I’m not totally qualified to fill the copywriter post, I want to point your attention to my editing and proofreading services.” Then I list relevant qualifications, such as proofreading projects at Jack Morton and the Boathouse Group. The timing of this introductory email and the client history should encourage the HR Director to follow links in the email to my Web presences. Maybe HR’s not looking for me, but here I am.

Freelancers, contact your target businesses, even if you don’t see the job advertised that you want. They might have something for you.

Shelter and Lifestyle Blogger Available

2008-06-23T13:35:00.006-07:00

Below is a sample post I pitched to a design pub. seeking Boston bloggers.

Don’t let rental-home decor disturb your holiday. Here’s five temporary design fixes for that vacation rental.

1. Throws with character make you feel at home, elsewhere.
2. These table settings protect the homeowner’s dining table and make summer BBQ cleanup a breeze.
3. Soothing vacation bedding eases rest and relaxation.
4. This summery voile shower curtain reminds you to lighten up.
5. A touch of local, natural material helps you stay in the moment. Vacationing in Maine? Try aromatic balsam fir. Cape Cod? Beach grass.

Latent Print likes vacation and design. The AMC hut Mizpah Spring, where I stayed Saturday, uses propane-augmented solar power to pump mountain well-water to the tap and run the Clivus fans and CFLs, and the staff composts food scraps. Their fusion of lifestyle and design at 3,800 feet reminds me of my past Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum visit for exhibit Design for the Other 90%. Hey, 10-percenters on holiday benefit from design, too.

Maybe the complementary design communities in this post urge us to consume conscientiously. Maybe they cause a kind of throw-pillow disdain—malcontent with our culture’s apparent decadence. Whichever, we’ll remember that environments are deliberate.

Your reaction, in comments.

I'm No Lawyer

2008-06-20T12:49:00.008-07:00

Sometimes I worry about breaking some agency nondisclosure clause on this blog. My take on it: If there's nothing to disclose, I won't disclose it. Sure, it's competitive out there. But when we focus on doing good work, the facts strengthen the play of the game, right?

I often post about agency work. I believe in a right to produce expression, especially when inspiration for such expression comes from experience. It's as if the nondisclosure clause copyrights against reproduction of my experience (intangible) through means of this blog (tangible). You can't copyright the intangible, and facts are unprotected. They can't possibly bar me from expression of my experiences, can they?

This post is making me feel naive. Please, someone tell me, why the nondisclosure forms to begin with? What do these companies have to be so paranoid about? Latent Print makes for good press.

Can any John Nash types offer sense of this?

Inspiration for this post from fellow blogger Lori's Words on the Page post here about intellectual property

Speaking Semicolons

2008-06-18T18:57:00.005-07:00

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features the semicolon, outside the closing quotation mark.

No one wants to be misquoted a semicolon. The punctuation mark’s nature—weaker than a period, stronger than a comma—allows it to convey a writer’s meaning or cadence. (Okay, maybe you speak in semicolons.) So, conventionally it appears outside the closing mark as not to disturb the quoted matter.

To me the distinction seems arbitrary. The period and comma can appear inside closing marks, why not the semicolon?

As always, your comments.

In your styleguides

The AP Stylebook page 336: “Place semicolons outside the quotation marks” and “within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only.”

Chicago verse 6.9: Semicolons “follow closing quotation marks.”

Gregg paragraph 248a: “Semicolons and colons always go outside the closing quotation mark.

Exposition

2008-06-17T06:55:00.006-07:00

I first heard about Web usability wonk Jakob Nielsen during editing certificate courses at the University of Washington Extension. Michael Agger writes recently about some of Nielsen’s notions at Slate magazine here.

If you don’t think you’ll make it through the whole article, at least scroll about half way to bold heading No Blogs, Though. Agger links there to Nielsen on blogging. That article by Nielsen spells out the aim Latent Print: “Create content that’s so valuable that business users are willing to pay for it.”

In addition to providing service-oriented content for early-career freelancers, Latent Print shows my business readers why they need what I offer—editorial services, satisfied customers.

Blog effective? Leave a comment, or hire me, that’d be best.

This Talent’s for Hire, Boss

2008-06-16T13:38:00.005-07:00

I find online searches for work ineffective at producing new clients. I prefer getting out there and meeting the people who’re going to help me get work, agencies, or the people who’re going to hire me, clients. This post at blog Words on the Page confirms my inclination.
I announced here when I first learned about sites Guru and Elance. I’m still grateful to know about the sites. But I think skillful navigation of bidding sites speaks less about my expertise than the results of that expertise on assignment. I’m more comfortable producing work with people than working against them, say, in a bidding war. What I’m selling is my talent, my teamwork, my problem solving, my focus on bringing a document to production, not my patience with navigating online bidding sites.
My early-career marketing plan: local word-of-mouth. Companies of Greater Boston, this talent’s for hire.

Spokes-Ursa

2008-06-13T14:31:00.005-07:00

Before Smoky Bear's now familiar slogan reached a copy editor, the spokes-ursa was quoted, "You can only prevent forest fires," which led the public to believe that they couldn't start forest fires.
Pass your weekend in thought over the following sentence:
People should seek advice about drinking water from their health care provider.
Need a hint? Misplaced modifier.
Leave your own in comments.

Position Proofreader

2008-06-12T14:13:00.008-07:00

This morning I left the creative staffing agency feeling that I'll be represented personally. Nothing speaks better than doing good work. I look forward to getting out there with one of their clients.
A few things came up this morning that proofreaders should know:
1) Build a portfolio. Show it to agents and clients. Maybe you didn't write or design the material, but you've likely left your mark. Include those samples. The markups demonstrate your skills.
2) Strategically position your service online. I have some of my written clips on the Mediabistro Freelance Marketplace. I've listed my proofreading specialties on Linked In. And my weekly post about editorial conventions, Styleguide Wednesday, serves not only Latent Print readers, as an online style reference, but also my business, as a record that I'm proficient with the major styleguides and that I continue to study them.
3) A Polish surname ending in a denotes feminine gender.
Latent Print readers, know anything about my name, Schraepfer?

Numerals or No?

2008-06-11T15:25:00.005-07:00

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features numbers in a range, numerals or no?

AP conventionalists tend to spell out single-digit numerals. But the convention becomes wonky in the following example: Run the water from 30 seconds to two minutes.
Consulting Chicago, immediately following their coverage of the AP convention, we find verse 9.7: “Where many numbers occur within a paragraph or a series of paragraphs, maintain consistency in the immediate context. If according to rule you must use numerals for one of the numbers in a given category, use them for all in that category.”
Further, Chicago’s treatment of numerals in ranges, 9.63, shows figures consistently or spellings consistently in the examples.
Paragraph 436a in Greggs reads, “Use figures (even from 1 through 10) to express periods of time.”
The sentence becomes Run the water from 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

Numbers style demands flexibility from the copy editor. Where consistency is key, apply it. But, "Consistency must sometimes give way to readability," Chicago 9.1 warns.
In today's example consistent numerals is a likely improvement. Near deadline you’d succeed leaving the expression as is. The subject might not enthuse the boss; come to Latent Print to discuss nuances of number consistency.

Must Communicate

2008-06-09T19:16:00.004-07:00

The hands-off proofreading approach serves me today. When the work of a satellite editor reaches my desk, I take it easy.
Clear communication is the aim of our documents, so it is that we should be on the same page. Styleguides or project stylesheets would help us communicate. A simple meeting could suffice. Anyway, I let many elements stand as typeset that I tend to leave as is or change at an earlier stage of editing.
Satellite ed. tends to hyphenate, as We deliver the best-quality drinking water to you or high-quality drinking water; to convert numerals less than ten (even in a range) to words, run the water from 30 seconds to two minutes; and to preserve the colon on an incomplete sentence introducing a vertical list, Substances in water include:
Nothing heinous; Surely, sat. ed. could critique where I place red.
Who's gonna argue simple cases of hyphenation with a client?
Best-quality drinking water? Latent Print readers, care to discuss?

Latent Print Service

2008-06-06T16:03:00.005-07:00

I was elated to speak with fellow freelancer Susan from blog The Urban Muse for her upcoming piece about freelancing. Stay tuned for publishing details. Thanks, Susan. I hope readers find your story, and my comments, of service.
Readers of Latent Print, any questions about proofreading? copyediting? writing? leave a trace, leave your comments.

Symbiotic!!

2008-06-05T09:02:00.003-07:00

An agent here emails, "Thank you for all your hard work over at Gemini Group - they have been raving about your work and how great of a fit it has been for them. PSG appreciates it because not only are you making a name for yourself but it also is making PSG look good, so thank you for that!!"
I love my job.

The Blues

2008-06-04T19:41:00.004-07:00

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features bluelines.

What are bluelines? Bluelines is the unbound, printed document. It should be treated as the final-final, not the stage to add commas between independent clauses or to correct misspellings. Chicago 3.40: "Any correction that would involve typesetting should be avoided at this stage for reasons of schedule and expense."
My PM, not happy to create new work orders for the printer, agrees.
I've seen editors use bluelines for final line edits. With desktop software, a few last-minute changes before upload aren't a problem; however, the changes can try the patience of designers and staff as deadline hovers.
During bluelines a proofreader should search for printer error or mistakes in file transfer. Make sure the bluelines match the revised proof. Check for flashes, check borders, tables, formatting changes introduced in file transfer, check colors.
Proofreaders, as always, your comments welcome. Did I forget any bluelines procedures?

Wrap Up

2008-06-04T19:19:00.003-07:00

Today nearly wraps up about a month of proofreading EPA mandated docs. The majority of remaining bluelines come from the printer on Monday. My PM told me to hit the road until then. I’ll return next week to scan the blues and proofread a few projects still working through the system.
While on assignment, I haven’t marketed much for new work. Tomorrow I follow up on a previous conversation with this Charlestown creative agency. Later this month I work a one-day agency assignment at a Waltham marketing firm (look forward to it, thank you). And, due in June is a jazz profile piece for the monthly Earshot publication. I’ll close this week by building more leads and scoring work to carry me through June and July, lest I depend on the dose of borrowed, free cash the IRS promises to return to me.
For my economic part, I spent this afternoon at my neighborhood farmer’s market (goat cheese; frozen, local strip steak; three essential oils soaps) and in my neighborhood theater sipping a pint, eating popcorn, and watching improbable Indiana survive a blast at the Nevada Test Site and elbow, kick, and punch Russian spies led by Mayan-interdimensional-alien-deity obsessed villainess (they live in the spaces between spaces). She's ultimately vaporized by her all-consuming desire to know everything at once. Harrison Ford’s punches sound the same as in the previous three movies. Lucas' sound effects haven't changed.

Latent Print Referred

2008-06-02T10:51:00.004-07:00

Thanks to colleague Sonja for the Linked In recommendation.

Laughing Gaffs

2008-05-30T15:45:00.005-07:00

Read the following aloud: We will asses the situation.
If you auto-corrected, read again.
Through all the focus on nuances of punctuation, all the griping about rates, this proofreader aims to stop words such as public, assess, or annal print misspelled.
Thanks to my PM for the extra set of eyes during bluelines.

Latent Print Learns HTML

2008-05-29T14:05:00.005-07:00

In this previous post, a couple of links open two pages simultaneously. To do this, I use an onclick code: [open angle bracket]a href="URL" target="_blank" onclick="window.open('URL', 'newwin')">anchor[open angle bracket]/a[close angle bracket].
What do you think, blogosphere? Also, any advice on writing code as an example and not having blogger pick it up?

Let's Everyday, Yes

2008-05-29T11:00:00.006-07:00

Today, as a century ago, the Berkshires provide retreat for artists and city slickers. On the recent holiday, I joined extended family in that setting thanks to host sisters DePorte.
At a point the old farmhouse includes a range of publishing types—two newsroom retirees; a book author formerly with the Department of State; a craftsman of bronze municipal signs; a pair of travel editors; a freelance startup, me; and a recent multimedia journalism Emerson grad. Besides being excellent Parker Brothers Balderdash competitors, members of the crew provide an inspirational nudge.
From the company of extended family, as from area landscapes and history, my holiday weekend in the Berkshires educes verve. The emotion that gushes from within after time in a place with mountains, hills, forests, farms, family is astounding. I've yet to recover.

En Dash Compounds

2008-05-28T15:32:00.004-07:00

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features en dash punctuation of compound modifiers.

Styleguide Wednesday is as much for readers as it is for copyeditors, proofreaders, designers, and publishers. Each party benefits from an illustration of the conventions of print.
The en dash, in the following examples, joins open compounds to form the single-thought modifier: the Tony Award–winning director or grandmother's post–World War II stories. From the examples we see that a hyphen would be insufficient.
Readers should know not to be puzzled when the en dash appears to function as a hyphen. Editors should know when to use it and when not to trouble their designers; designers and publishers should engage when editors insist there's a difference between a hyphen and an en dash besides length.
For more on the en dash as hyphen check out Amy Einsohn's The Copyeditor's Handbook, p. 108; Chicago 6.85; or The Gregg Reference Manual 424 and 819.

Conventional, Reckless

2008-05-23T12:29:00.005-07:00

Since this Monday post, I've wanted to emphasize for readers that the post is about learning fitness. Efficient use of our busy designers' time is paramount. It's unfair to our project manager to be critical of procedure. The caryatid-like figure props this place up for the thousands, who likely toss our product in the trash, er, recycling.
The lesson reminds me of a recent freelance proofreading assignment here. Deadline approaches, budgets are waning, and designers are running out of coffee—patience—the PM drops the latest route on my desk. Go easy on us, she says. No production team can succeed for long with a recklessly conventional proofreader. The mark is to save us all from inefficiency and embarrassment and to get us to print.
One of the fun things about editing in publishing is its resemblance to my interpretation of evolution. The production team aims not for a superlative document through small, formal mutations; rather, the team produces a fit document by shifting efficiencies. Besides, we don't want a perfect product. That leaves little room for the appearance of improvement next season.

Billable Hours

2008-05-22T18:21:00.004-07:00

As the season here winds to a close, the production manager sees I need more to do. She invites me to work on other freelance projects while on the clock.
While on-site, I bill hours to the client. What to do, if I'm expected to stick around but have no work to do?
This has happened before. While freelance proofreading here for a week, I filled down time by reading this book.
Corporate proofreading gigs can't be all the same. My first freelance proofreading gig here allowed little downtime. I guess retail has stricter production schedules.
Anyway, I'll focus when the job hits the desk. Let me say it takes effort to combat the billing-and-hours-equity paranoia, but on-site, I bill. Clients, the flat rate, it's an advantage.
As always, Latent Print welcomes your comments.

Breaking Email, URL

2008-05-21T09:54:00.007-07:00

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features how to break a URL or email address.

The AP offers simple guidance on the issue: When it doesn't fit, break it. Add no new elements.
Chicago goes a step further to rescue readers from possible ambiguities arising at the break. Verse 6.17 asks us to break URLs before periods. Verse 7.44 instructs likewise for URLs and email addresses and advises, as does AP, not to hyphenate the break and to not break at a hyphen.
The first edition of Wired Style explains hyphen-aided breaks in email addresses: "This makes it unclear whether the hyphen is part of the address." On the email @, Chicago and Wired disagree. Chicago above, Wired below.
To facilitate the clean break, we're to look between elements of the URL or email address but can break syllables with a soft return if necessary. For Chicago's summary of the convention turn to verse 17.11.
The logic aims to not invite confusion at the line break. These are conventions, break as you please. Any clever line breakers out there want to comment?

Consistency, Call It

2008-05-19T17:13:00.006-07:00

I'm walkin a tightrope. If I mark up, I hold up production; if I don't mark up, I allow errors to print. I anticipate the attentive client's needs in the name of consistency.
I concede that I've introduced liberal changes too late in production. I also admit that my work is not error free. (I'm to let client introduced errors stand?) But when we ignore markup, make no record of it, and throw away the backups, the errors are procedural, not individual. If we do the minimum now, we risk losing the client in the future.
I want good teamwork, and it's difficult to keep emotion out of the work—they've got a great product. Here's an example from last year.

Cyber-Schraepfer Expansions

2008-05-15T15:05:00.004-07:00

News of online freelance marketplaces Guru and Elance comes to Latent Print today. Thanks to office colleague, designer George Hagler, for the tip.
After I enroll, the two sites will allow me to bid on jobs. I'm glad to have additional presence online. Maybe finding work with these sites will prove more effective than the community bulletin board method here and the who-d'ya-know driven connections here.
Oh, yeah, remind me to get my website up to the plate.

Styleguide Wednesday

2008-05-14T20:05:00.006-07:00

Latent Print presents Styleguide Wednesday, a post each Wednesday featuring an editorial convention from the world of styleguides. Whether a book, a spiral-bound manual, a stack of stapled 8½ x 11s, or a work-in-progress project stylesheet, these guides are the conversation on which the work of editors and other publishing professionals is based. View previous Latent Print moments of stylebook study and reflection here. This week features capitalization of generic nouns in plural uses.

Chicago 8.57 inspires the following example: Bays Chesapeake and Delaware but the Chesapeake and Delaware bays. The entry tells us, “When the generic term comes second and applies to two or more names, it is usually lowercased.”
But, in the AP Stylebook, “Lowercase the common noun elements of names in all plural uses.”
Why the distinction? As always, Latent Print is open for your comments.

Editor Itself

2008-05-13T15:33:00.009-07:00

I've been working here long enough to see some of my mistakes route back to me. Today, two appeared on one document.
Though I wasn't guilty of Amy Einsohn's second commandment of copyediting, I had allowed two errors to pass to penultimate stages. I'm thankful for other's eyes.

Amy's four commandments are listed at the bottom of this page from her A Copyeditor's Handbook. Happy browsing, but don't forget to buy this excellent resource.
More on the origins of the first edition, and the editorial model I aspire to, here.

Hold the Page

2008-05-12T17:29:00.007-07:00

Two email communications reach Latent Print today. One, from the address of this equity and venture capital firm's Chief Marketing Officer, invites me to introduce my proofreading services. Delighted to.
Two, from this creative and marketing placement agency's Senior Career Advocate in Boston, likes my online portfolio and wants to connect.
I'm eager to follow up. Email one makes a generic salutation (maybe because I have two last names?), yet reports that the contact comes via referral. I aim to find out how the referrer heard of me. I'll call here tomorrow morning to find out which of my marketing efforts gathers the unsolicited attention.
The agency staffer in email two announces that he found me here.
I've been contacted through that online portfolio before. Cindy Elmore, Ph.D., at this North Carolina university's School of Communications, had a grad student crawl this site for email addresses. She sent to mine a request for "consent to participate in a study that focuses on the work, perceptions, and characteristics of freelance journalists," the original email begins.
I'm glad to be found this way, because I subscribe monthly to hold the page.

Talent Commodity

2008-05-09T15:12:00.008-07:00

Agency posts abound on Latent Print. If you've just tuned in, catch up to speed here.
Regular LP readers also read by now—I hope—blog The Urban Muse, who asks LP by email about creative firms in Boston. I respond that agencies sell talent at a steep markup. "The sense that they are making money off of me is tangible," I say. Yet, I benefit, I work, because the agency markets and networks for me. And, we hope, their motives don't trump the placement of good talent.
In the email I share the following anecdote: "I interviewed for a post, with good review, but didn't get the assignment. Two months goes by. [Agency] calls me because their posted talent turned out to be a dud. My temp-boss now tells me that he only went with the dud on agency recommendations. Translation: [Agency] could make larger margins on the dud, so they placed the dud. Parable: Don't lower rates just for the job."
So, I'm on an agency assignment here until June. The twin proprietors are happy to have me. When they shop for talent, they want a great product. I provide a positive attitude and the ability to get quickly up to speed on assignment.
My experience with creative firms shows me the worth of my talent. Heck, I'm great for their brand. Now, if I could just get a few gigs on my own.

Chicago 6.50

2008-05-07T20:05:00.001-07:00

Thinking to name a business? Do us Chicago proofeaders a favor; exclude the comma from your company name. Can someone inform Latent Print where the , Inc. trend got a foothold?
Forego Inc with the extra character, I think not. Yet, Chicago instructs, if the comma must appear, place the mark fore and aft.
To make a thorough job of it, better get on the phone with the business's press agent for official guidance. One can't Chicago the whole world.

Here's a blog about erroneous business signage.
And here's Lynne Truss's best-selling book supporting proper punctuation as a cause. (Worth trumping deadline, really?) My aunt (quoted here), a British Literature specialist and English teacher at this Delaware high school, recommends the book, another for my library queue.

Agency Talent, Sometimes

2008-05-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

Since I arrived in Boston, this agency has provided the majority of my freelance assignments. Though they've helped me, a transplanted freelancer, make new business contacts and stay fresh in the field, agency work can be only part of the pie.
More about being an agency talent comes to Latent Print through recent full-time freelancer and distant blogosphere colleague The Urban Muse. Her post here links to the post by freelancer Lori at blog Words on the Page.
Latent Print stresses one of Lori's points in the piece: "If you work your heart out for the temp agency and maintain a professional demeanor at their client's location, you'll not lack for work."
The notion sounds to Latent Print like an approach to all jobs, life in general, or a mashed up version of Lake Wobegon Lutheranism.

Latent Print in Earshot Jazz

2008-05-05T18:43:00.005-07:00

For a gander at the latest magazine piece by Latent Print blogger Schraepfer, surf on over to the online version of this Seattle jazz publication. My profile of singer Kendra Shank begins on page 10.

Dumb or Smart Marks

2008-05-02T11:10:00.008-07:00

Deadline pressures often demand the proofreader allow erroneous punctuation make it to print. Examples include a terminal colon on an incomplete sentence introducing a list and smart and dumb apostrophes, on adjacent lines no less.
For more on introducing a vertical list, open your Chicago Manual of Style to verse 6.127 or visit the manual's online Q+A on the subject. Or, a subscription would beat lugging the book about on-site. Anyone want to sponsor mine?
I think the curvy apostrophe and quote marks disappear somewhere in the trading of pdf files. It's probably the most frequent change I make in documents; though, on some projects getting to print takes precedence. Curving a bunch of straight marks makes me look cocky anyway. The docs can't all be perfect.

Comma Quiz

2008-05-02T09:42:00.003-07:00

Multiple Choice Comma Placement Quiz

This is an interpretive quiz. Tell me how you notice the comma placement changing the meaning of the following sentences:

a) As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals, in some cases, radioactive material, and substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity.

b) As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals, and, in some cases, radioactive material, and substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity.

c) As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals and, in some cases, radioactive material, and substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity.

d) As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals and, in some cases, radioactive material and substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity.

I'll post the sentence I chose for these annual water quality reports in comments.

Freelancer's Job Title

2008-04-29T17:20:00.004-07:00

I can usually spot the other early career freelancers by their title. Yep, the double or triple monikers stand out in the marketplace.
About a year ago, this national higher education news pub's regional correspondent, also a jazz magazine editor, my supervisor at the time, joked about the dubious use of a virgule in my professional title. In an attempt at brevity, I marketed as not only a writer but also a slash editor.
After a laugh at myself, I've since clarified the title. Now, it reads Writer and Editor.
Marketing as both, I think, is a weak strategy. The generalization diffuses my specific skills, but a single title would disguise my overall publishing experience; therefore, my worth. What's a freelancer to do when even this popular Web networking brand prompts writing and editing as a primary expertise?
My most successful, read paying, gigs come from marketing as a specialist, a proofreader. A more accurate title, one that addresses all of the skills I bring to a job, yields fewer gigs. Maybe it yields fewer because the employer sees dollar signs muting all that marketed skill. Any strategic advice?
Freelancers, hold firm your rates. Get accurate job estimates. We educate employers by setting premium rates on our service or services as marketed.

Pop quiz: naturally-occurring substances, correct or incorrect?

Today and Tomorrow

2008-04-28T19:17:00.003-07:00

Tomorrow I'm at this water quality compliance pamphleteer for an assignment of unknown duration.
Today, I proofread for this diabetes research clinic and educator.
I like the material at both companies. That makes it fun.
That's all from Latent Print today.
Stay tuned for future posts What is Proofreading? and Job Title Trends of the Self-Employed.

E-Corrigendum

2008-04-25T05:09:00.004-07:00

Thanks to Latent reader Cooke, my dad, who's called attention to a misspelling in a previous post. The misspelled word is relates.
Latent Print regrets the error.

Blogger Gets Busy

2008-04-24T13:50:00.012-07:00

Okay, lots of activity to report from Latent Print.
Can we do it as a list? Sure, we can do it as a list.
1. A story idea this morning for a local, weekly magazine column I thought was beyond my expertise. The rationale for my return East, you can read something about it here, has been on my mind. A first-person relationship reflection in the Sunday paper seems like a natural forum for this. Dontcha think? Stay tuned, it's all good, uplifting, perhaps. Sounds like a crossword clue.
2. An on-site assignment for next week in today from a rep at this creative agency popular with Latent Print. The rep says, "It is so nice to have clients specifically ask for you back. You always do an excellent job and we appreciate it more than you know." No, thank you.
3. I'm eager to apply for this local radio station's Production Assistant gig on the morning news broadcast. The job runs 4-noon. Bargaining my sanity or independent schedule? I'll let you know.
4. From the sales patriarch at Seattle wine-gift company I learned that boozing on the job is a disease, Punjabi snacks and sweets are delicious, and no eventually means yes. The advice realtes relates to a rejection e-mail earlier this week from this freelance proofreading prospect. The e-mail reads, "We are currently all set" ... to hire me later? Prospecting follow-up scheduled. Ever grateful for the training, Vasantji.
5. And, today, I responded to a craigslist ad to write for this travel blog brand branching to New England. Let's see. Frequent traveler, loves people and places, adventure and relaxation, I'm fit for it.

Finally, thanks for encouraging words from Susan and Cooke Harvey.

Adventure pic of me courtesy Jeremy Luscher, hosted by Eric London.

Sidewalk Rubber Band

2008-04-23T12:19:00.002-07:00

At the rate postal carriers dispose of rubber bands in this town, I could have office supplies for a month.
Smile!

Fledgling Freelancer's Flight

2008-04-23T07:13:00.005-07:00

A Western area code appears. Paul. His pitch takes the informed approach.
"So, how'd you like Native Son?" he asks.
I tell him, yet subscription at my former neighborhood's Tony Award-winning theater remains impossible.
I introduced myself to Paul Harding at the 2006 Earshot Jazz volunteer party in the private lofts at this Seattle club and bar. Months prior, I saw him do his spoken word thing with musicians Joe McPhee and Mike Bisio at this Ballard bar.
On the phone, at first, he doesn't recall that we've met. After a moment's chat about writing, jazz, the East Coast, I relate the uncanny call as reality check.
"Okay. I'm gonna make some money now," he says. We hang up.
So far, making due with freelance work in Boston isn't going well. Plan B comprises creditors—an apt term for the card that put me through this professional certification program, not so, the support from loved ones—or an inquiry at the nearby florist shop or cafe-cum-pizza parlor.
Given more time, we hope my portfolio attracts local appeal, and assignments come in as for this local freelancer. Congratulations, Susan, on making the switch to freelancing full-time.

Whose Line is it Anyway?

2008-04-22T17:16:00.001-07:00

I'm attracted to the Bildungsroman. The coming-of-age stories serve as existential proof: I am, my narrative is not, unique. (Your reflections on Jante's Law?)
This Boston Globe review of essays by DeWitt Henry suggests similarity in Henry's narrative and that of Latent Print. However, in the review we learn that Henry perseveres. "Henry describes how he improvised a life," we're told.
Improvised? A dubious reduction of the coming-of-age narrative. The proper demi-glace intimates why one cooks at all.
I hope Henry's account of founding Ploughshares smacks of something grander.
I'll add the Emerson professor's book to my queue at the local library.

Your Resume Will Remain on File

2008-04-18T12:10:00.004-07:00

With 22 applications out there and only hits from this agency since January, I figure something is wrong with my approach. Make something of these phrases: "Nothing wrong with your personality," and "more senior level," and "keep you in mind."
Some applications are for non-existent posts at target companies, say, proofreading marketing collateral at this fast-casual joint or this major marketing firm, for example. Freelancers have to prospect. Hmmm, remind me to make those follow up calls next week.
Since the authors of advertised job posts, for which I am amply qualified, return nada by way of my submitted applications, I send for help.
I start with a resume consultation. This results in a resume redesign here that I offer up for critique—thanks all.

Chicago 18.57, 18.69–18.85

2008-04-17T09:50:00.002-07:00

Not familiar with stylebook verse? The numbers translate thus: alphabetizing personal names in letter-by-letter style—thousands of names. A biblical task guided by secular text.
As I scroll Arabic al-s, Asian romanizations, Spanish and Latin American unhyphenated couplings, Mc-somethings and O'whats it's, names become fates. What if I incorrectly apply Chicago treatment to the child of an influential indexing expert?
Thankfully, the maxims of proofreading and copyediting ne'er are wrote.
A fascinating project. Congratulations graduates.
Today, I celebrate new membership in this Boston writing organization, submit this draft, and join friends at this Porter Square pub before squeezing in to this Porter Square bookstore for a Meredith Hall reading recommended by my friend and fiction writer Megan Bedford.

Conde Nast's New Wired Style

2008-04-16T06:07:00.006-07:00

News is in from an unlikely source for Latent Print. Wired plans to publish an updated stylebook. Read the original post here.
The original Constance Hale edition provides lessons in staying relevant in a growing digital world—valuable for proofreaders and copy editors clutching AP or Chicago.
I turned to Wired Style on assignment when the exec. asst. asked me if I would capitalize C-level, as in senior-level employee, ya know, the chief. With no guidance from Wired, I suggested she reword it. No dice. Too many uses already in the doc.
My survey of this Conde Nast business pub. reveals C-Level in heading case and C-level in doc text; at Forbes, ditto, though they sometimes tie their execs. to the office, C-suite occupants. I thought business happened on the links.
The new Wired Style can't come soon enough.
Anyone know of the first occurance of C-level?

Pajama Workers in the Minority

2008-04-15T13:30:00.003-07:00

Though Catherine Price's self-employment service piece offers helpful insights—my comments—perhaps Salon eds. should exercise a heavier hand. I appreciate personality in a lede, but reject the author’s characterization of the self-employed. The coffee-shop-cool-freelancer-with-cubicle-disdain notion belies the reality of self-employment.
Under that characterization, my resume appears both unattractive, to prospective staff employers who assume freelancers are alike, and attractive, to agencies searching for mercenaries.
Looking ahead at working 40–50 years, I see employment as a one-assignment-at-a-time evolution of my skills and my self. In this projection a staff job, cubicle or no, and self-employment receive equal measure. In either case, I work in clothes, not pajamas.

Related gripes: I enjoy my local, hipster cafe, but I could never bring my office there—they charge for wireless—let alone concentrate if I tried.

Competition I

2008-04-14T12:28:00.007-07:00

Can an experienced, twentysomething freelancer stand apart in this town?

To whom it may concern:
So, I'm applying to this job that my BFF sent me on Facebook. I'd be like totally perfect for it!
I get grate grades and finish my internship later this month. Going to school and slaving in an office for Pnuts at my internship has been totally bananas, but I'm like totally a better person for it! With my real-world experience, I'll totally help your company make more money then Steve Jobs. Love my MacBook, go Steve;)
So, I'm an expert at all things related to the job. Steve Carell has totally taught me everying I need to know about tolerating jerks at work. BTW, Jim is sooooo cute. I'm efficient, do what I'm told, and won't erupt the bosses good ideas. Like I've totally payed my dues and m ready to start work in a high-powered, entry-level position for $60,000 a year.
I've attached my resume to this email. You could reply to this email to interview me, but its just totally easier if we just do it over IM. Or, do you Skype? So, I'll hear from u later this week, right? I graduate soon and I totally need to know if I have a job before my parents get here for commencement.
U totally won't regret hiring me, like, I'm a total whiz.
Ciao,
Boston Applicant

Back Pocket

2008-04-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

What a line. “My motivation isn’t completely altruistic.”
Permanently working for free loomed after the few months volunteering as the member magazine's assistant editor. I wish I could have told him, also a frequent volunteer, then that I’d certainly be around a while, but returning East was inevitable. The director and I continued Thai lunch.
I don’t have the courage to list here the reasons I’m fond of my past experiences there. Even though the magazine can’t pay me a lot now, I’m happy to work with them again.
I pitched service as regional correspondent. The new ed. assigned me a profile and concert preview story on former Seattleite and musician Kendra Shank.
I send the piece in early next week after a phone interview and trip to the NYC-based singer’s brunch gig here with Francois Moutin, bass, and John Stowall, guitar; I’ll record temporary travel expenses on 2008’s Schedule C. (Lessons on filing quarterly some other time.)
With this clip, I'll pitch national jazz pubs on the jazz org's upcoming 20th fest.

Also, with disagreeable times now past, that agency called yesterday with a short freelance proofreading assignment for next week. I can't wait to do good work for us both.

Someone to Talk To

2008-04-10T14:20:00.005-07:00

I behave politely, despite his presumption. His influence lands his ilk a Latent Print post. Conspiracy theorists score one point. Believe whatever you want.
On the walk to deposit my check I pause in this square, where couples share ice cream in the sun and geriatric prater mingles with diesel backfires and a stubbled busker’s tenor. Hovering in the candid scene produces a satisfaction. I'm content to remain anonymous, to continue working alone among the gatherers.
As a freelancer, I do sometimes crave conversation. Do I appear receptive, I wonder, somehow approachable?
I can't quote the camera-wielding proselytizer. While he spoke, I was silently excusing his cause. I just thought he was going to ask me to take his photograph.

Prospecting

2008-04-10T09:50:00.003-07:00

Thanks to my girlfriend's office survey, I have a new job board to search for freelance work. The tip comes from a copywriter there.
Thanks to you both.

Insurance

2008-04-09T13:28:00.005-07:00

Musician Andrew D'Angelo's recent misfortune and this state's mandate—not to mention the behest of my dad—prompt me to end my gamble with health and finances.
I start individual health care policy research here. The site leads me to useful pdfs of coverage comparisons. I navigate on my own to find each of the six provider's unsavory premiums and limited-network emergency coverage.
Though health care misgivings are not unique to Massachusetts, the state's coverage mandate presently is. It's perhaps the reason why moving to the Commonwealth ruptured any benefit from my professional group's health care discount. I'm waiting to hear back now about one company's self-employment rate. If I get this settled by next week, I can visit a doctor by next month.
Healthy, uninsured, and self-employed in Mass, I offer this post on Latent Print as case study.

Opposing Morbidity

2008-04-08T15:16:00.003-07:00

Today passed as many others.
I deleted e-mail job alerts. I drank coffee. I read my daily aggregate of media-news headlines, where this story about a presently two-paper town with a history of print competion comes as no surprise among the trend of eschatological reportings on the troubled industry.
Papers fold; bloggers die of heartattacks; attrition might be less severe among catalog proofreaders here or catalog copywriters here—the two applications I sent out today.

Photo by Justin Gove

Freelancer's Bill of Rights

2008-04-07T13:54:00.003-07:00

The ol' bureaucratic-hierarchy excuse.
I'm not casting blame. Nursing mailbox malcontent, yet to call, I've exerted minimal pressure on them to fill the invoice.
Today, via e-mail reply, my assignment editor bought time: "As of Thursday your check was cut but waiting to be signed."
Sheesh, can someone get payroll a rubber stamp already.

Genesis

2008-04-07T11:20:00.005-07:00

I denied Friday's agency assignment. By the client's calculation, proofreading the 50–60-page marketing proposal was a 1pm–5pm job. The agency rep noticed that I sounded hesitant.
I reported that despite the improbable estimate—even 10 pp/hr would not satisfy the four-hour window—I was up for the challenge.
When the rep announced a pay rate below my stated minimum, we hit the brakes. Mutual apologies followed a swift exchange about margins; the job and my updated profile dissolved into their database.
Instead of facing Friday-afternoon on-site abandonment, I created Latent Print.

Mug

2008-04-04T12:54:00.005-07:00

Greetings from Latent Print, a blog by an independent writer, editor, and proofreader about being intermittently employed. I'll post each workday about assignments, colleagues, or diversions from permanent employ. Welcome cybersleuths. I hope to hear from you.