On editing
I am a pretty vicious editor, even when I was a graduate student instructor, my students complained I was a hard grader, because the fact is their papers had to have structure, argument, support, and style before I would consider it an A paper. It wasn't a matter of just having a few good points.
Then I met a really vicious editor, and boy did I love working with her. I got just as good as she was at rewriting whole paragraphs authors would send in. And guess what? Most authors really liked the improved papers. Thanked me for my efforts in revising the paper. Thanked me for the opportunity to clarify and strengthen the argument.
That to me is the point of an author/editor relationship, intellectual engagement with one another over the same topic, with a goal of making it as good as possible. Editors have a real responsibility, that the final product that is published--and which will be, afterall, accessed under the editor's name for all eternity--at least meets, if not exceeds, the editor's own scholarly standards.
Icelanders are far too worried about offending someone, I guess, to actually implement this type of editing. Which is, in point of fact, the same problem that allowed a few undisciplined guys to run amok all over the banking system. I for one say what Iceland needs is a good editor.
Then I met a really vicious editor, and boy did I love working with her. I got just as good as she was at rewriting whole paragraphs authors would send in. And guess what? Most authors really liked the improved papers. Thanked me for my efforts in revising the paper. Thanked me for the opportunity to clarify and strengthen the argument.
That to me is the point of an author/editor relationship, intellectual engagement with one another over the same topic, with a goal of making it as good as possible. Editors have a real responsibility, that the final product that is published--and which will be, afterall, accessed under the editor's name for all eternity--at least meets, if not exceeds, the editor's own scholarly standards.
Icelanders are far too worried about offending someone, I guess, to actually implement this type of editing. Which is, in point of fact, the same problem that allowed a few undisciplined guys to run amok all over the banking system. I for one say what Iceland needs is a good editor.
Comments
Reyndar hef ég góða reynslu af prófarkalesurum á þeim blöðum sem ég hef unnið hjá, sérstaklega hjá 365. Sumir þeirra hefðu átt skilið að hækka upp í stöðu "copy editors" (veit ekki hvort það er til íslenskt heitir yfir það...