Thursday, December 4, 2008

Editing

I love to write. At one point in time, I was set on being a Journalist. This never happened, for several reasons, and I'm content being a Green Grocer at a natural food cooperative for the time being. Despite it not being the focus of my career, I still get to do some writing, and enjoy that I have an audience of about ten thousand people (in theory, who knows how many actually read the newsletter) that receive my work in their mailboxes several times a year. 

I noticed after re-reading the Koeppel interview for the nth time, that there are many typos, word omissions, and grammatical errors throughout. Most people don't notice, or care about these things, which I know, but, I care. I rushed getting that to our Editor, and I feel that it shows in the grammar. Transcribing is tough work. It took me about four, maybe five, hours to transcribe a thirty-five minute interview. I finished the piece when I was in London, and I definitely did not check it as thoroughly as I would have liked, which is something that I'll have to work on, but our Editor didn't edit it either. 

This blog is written a particular tone, and is kept informal, and casual for a reason. I read blogs that feature really solid writing, and some that are just great. I aspire to hit the right balance of tone and style someday with my writing. Bringing your life to life for others enjoyment, and entertainment is fun, and I feel that it is a great vehicle for keeping a record. However, I want to not post errors on here, or, have errors published. Now, I just feel like I messed up the Koeppel interview because of all the typos and what not, but know that the content is solid. 

Long story short, I want to make sure that when something gets out into the world, that was written by me, that it is properly edited, and corrected. I guess we'll have to see how that works. 

5 comments:

TexasDeb said...

Taking care with your writing is a worthy cause. Your words are out there representing you, after all.

I am pleased you shared the banana bonanza with the public even if it was not quite as picked clean of typos as you might have wished. There are times when a need for the content overrides, yes?

The eye usually sees what it expects to see (a complete or correctly spelled word) which, while making editing tricky, means most people will never notice a slip up or two. Solace in that.

Flapjacks said...

studies show that we read words correctly when the first and last letters are correct, the rest can be a jumbled mess. see for yourself.

etidnig otefn tkaes too lnog.

TexasDeb said...

I dnot konw waht you are taklnig aobut.

Beth Ella said...

i love to copy edit! it's beth from WV, btw.

feel free to ask me to look over something anytime.

Beth Ella said...

p.s. deb is right. people never notice that shit. i used to be the editor in chief of a liberal rag student paper and no one ever seemed to notice... it drove me bonkers though.

Add to Technorati Favorites

Folks who Follow this Blog