Editing and Clarity: The Compatibility of the Science and the Art of Editing All artists must choose a medium to perfect; for some this means perfecting the
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movement of the waltz; for others, the shading of charcoal; for others still, the developing of film. I always fancied myself an artist, especially at a young age, but I never excelled in art classes. Throughout high school, I excelled in mathematics and the sciences, especially chemistry and physics. I was torn between two contrasting schools of work, for one was abstract and the other concrete. I discovered I could blend my two ways of thought and chose my own medium of expression—words.
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It is said that the history of the world is told through and reflected by art. I agree with
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this, but I agree more that the history of the world is told with the power of words, with the
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power of a story. I don’t mean to say that only official documents can change the world (though
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they certainly do)—what I mean to say is that we reflect our culture with words, in personal
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essays and poetry and realistic fiction (and, increasingly, blog posts). These words illustrate the
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life and struggles of the ordinary person’s day-to-day life. But writing is a unique art in that it
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involves the creator, the viewer, and also a refiner. This is where editors get to recite their lines,
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which is more concrete, and play their part, choosing their own way of expression. It is easy to
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view editing, especially copyediting, as a science—a set of strict, developed rules that, when broken, can lead to disaster. While certainly an element of editing, it should also be
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considered an art—a chance to be expressive, to break the rules, and to create something
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unique. It is only when these elements work in tandem that the editor can create clarity, the
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ultimate goal.
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A part of editorial training, editors are schooled in various style manual rules, told which dictionaries to use, and told that breaking the rules can ruin a career. This is what I call the “science” approach to editing: there are specific rules generated and followed. Science tells us
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time). Editors who live stalwartly in this approach find that “it can be very, very difficult to be
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‘flexible,’ when that seems to mean sacrificing everything [they] believe in”—even when
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breaking the rules would be advantageous for the reader (Saller 27). The “art” approach,
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generally learned in the field, tells editors that not every sentence has to end with a period.
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that gravity on Earth is 9.8 m/s2; grammar tells us to end sentences with a period (most of the
Editing is a science because of the rules that govern it. Editing is an art because words act as an
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artistic medium to be manipulated in order to better convey meanings and messages.
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During my time as a student at Brigham Young University, I have had two especially
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valuable editing opportunities: to edit academic writing for the faculty and to edit speculative
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fiction for a campus publication, Leading Edge.
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I recently worked on the layout of a journal with a member of the BYU faculty who was the managing editor. He did not request any additional editing but mentioned that I was free to
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suggest changes if I came across issues or had new ideas. Two of the things style manuals hold
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dear are the formatting of citations and how to correctly use footnotes or endnotes. This
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particular journal utilized footnotes in the first issue of volume one. However, when I was
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completing the layout, I found that this style interfered with the flow and overall accessibly of
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the writing. Carol Fisher Saller of the University of Chicago Press states that “[w]hat these
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[Chicago Q&A] questions fail to understand that style rules (which pertain to punctuation,
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capitalization, hyphenation, preferred spellings, and conventions for citing sources, among
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other things) are often by nature arbitrary and changeable” (Saller 28). This also applies to
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all style manuals, guides, and sheets, not just The Chicago Manual of Style. The use of footnotes or endnotes seemed arbitrary to me, and luckily the BYU faculty member agreed and decided to use endnotes going forward. This was to convenience not only me as the editor and designer but also the reader. As Saller says, “Style rules aren’t used because they’re ‘correct.’ They’re used
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for your convenience in serving the reader” (29). Convenience in serving the reader, as she puts it, should be the number one priority for editors. You are helping the author by taking their art and making it accessible. This requires that a certain number of rules are kept, but that rules must be broken when following them would confuse the reader. As a general rule, if it makes me pause, I assume the reader will have the same reaction. By being sensitive to these issues of clarity, an editor gains power and the ability to mold words more fully. In moments such as these the editor can no longer rely solely on the book but must take creative license in order to achieve the editor’s ultimate goal—clarity. A second illustrative experience occurred when I created a style guide for Leading Edge in my time as Managing Editor. As an entity that has existed for over thirty years, Leading Edge has developed its own writing style. In this style we break several rules that style manuals such as The Chicago Manual of Style put forward. When shaping rules for the magazine, online publication, and social media, we are careful to make sure none of our rules lead to confusion; we strive for clarity in every word and punctuation mark. We are also careful to not break any of the “standard” rules of spelling and grammar, like ending a sentence with a period and separating simple lists with commas. If we were to break these rules, we would make it harder for the reader to comprehend meaning and for Leading Edge to maintain credibility. Joseph M. Williams and
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Joseph Bizup advise that “[s]ome rules are real—if we ignore them, we risk being labeled at least
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unschooled. . . . But many oft-repeated rules are less important than many think, and some are
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not even real rules” (10). Rules regarding capitalization of titles, use of the serial comma, and source documentation will not often impair the reader if changed. And often, as Williams and Bizup said, such rules aren’t even real rules of the English language. But an editor must be careful to not be too artful in his or her disregard of rules; as soon as it leads to confusion, the editor has gone too far. Editing is both an art and a science. In current editing education, especially in the specific field of copyediting, it is treated much like a science, which can lead an author to become paranoid about breaking rules. But the best editors learn to find artistic license in order to increase the communicability of the work—the clarity of the piece. Editors must realize that the rules exist for a reason, and that reason is clarity; but as editors work in an advisory role to the author, they are advocating for the reader. Sometimes that means advocating for a rule change or
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giving in to the author’s style choices. Learning the skills of the editing trade is valuable for people of all backgrounds and academic disciplines; you learn to apply yourself, to put yourself in the reader’s shoes, to follow rules, to break rules, and to create effective communication and
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peace-making skills. The unity of science and art in editing is perhaps a unique unity, forcing
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editors to think differently. This unique mode of thinking gives editors a new way to approach
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the world, a new perspective. I’ve developed a better mind for analysis, gained knowledge of
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rule application,
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Works Cited Saller, Carol. The Subversive Copy Editor Advice from Chicago (or, How to Negotiate Good Relationships with Your Writers, Your Colleagues, and Yourself). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2009. Print. Williams, Joseph M., and Joseph Bizup. Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Eleventh ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print.
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