Here at Messenger, we recently learned that September is Be Kind to Editors and Writers Month.
Who knew! Apparently, it was initiated by a small publishing company in Texas in 1984. Will there be a 40th anniversary party this month?
You may wonder what editors do, since our work is fairly invisible. (My word processing software says the words “fairly invisible” should be changed to something more concise. Thanks, AI.)
Yes, conciseness is important to an editor. So is clarity, accuracy, organization, proper punctuation, correct spelling, good syntax, parallelism, consistent voice, and the absence of cliches and dangling modifiers. Throughout all that, the editor seeks to preserve the writer’s style and voice. When the editor has done a good job, the writer might say, “I don’t know exactly what’s different, but it’s just better.”
Not everybody thinks small bits of punctuation matter. North Yorkshire in England recently phased out apostrophes on its street signs, causing a small ruckus. Some of these street names “date back centuries,” the town acknowledged, and said it was reviewing the matter.
On the other side of the debate, linguist John McWhorter describes apostrophes as “decorative” and believes most could be eliminated. While his opinion might please schoolchildren, I respectfully disagree. I hope editors all around the world will agree that St. Marys Walk should have its apostrophe returned and be St. Mary’s Walk once again. (Even the pesky word processing software underlines “Marys” with a red squiggly line.)
But I’m amused that the North Yorkshire Council has apostrophes on its agenda, if that’s true. As one who mentally corrects signage all over the place, I have to applaud serious consideration of apostrophes, commas, em dashes, ellipses, and other such things.
To be clear, the point of consistency is not to ace the test in English class but to make the message understandable. (Perhaps you’ve seen this meme: “Let’s eat Grandma. Let’s eat, Grandma. Punctuation saves lives.”)
In other words, I do agree with linguist McWhorter that what’s most important is meaning. Our editors, whether they’re working away at the deep developmental editing of a book or the simpler editing of a short article, are dedicated to making the meaning clear and the writing effective.
That’s one of the ways editors and writers show kindness to the reader, who after all is of utmost importance. We hereby declare that September is Be Kind to Readers Month.
Wendy McFadden is publisher of Brethren Press and executive director of communications for the Church of the Brethren.