Do editors ever really stop editing?
The physical part of vacation is easy for me. Before the car engine even cools, I’ll be on the patio with a glass of wine in my hand and my shoes off. The mental part takes a little longer. I can ignore work emails, but I keep editing in my head. I’ve already written a blog about ignoring grammar and spelling in social media, and I can always read for pleasure and not get caught up on typos or misused words. If I’m honest, though, they do register. It takes a couple days of real relaxation for the proofreading portion of my brain to unplug.
Here are some ways I know this editor is really on vacation:
- I stop diagramming sentences in my head. I don’t yell back at the law firm commercial that insists, “If you or a loved one has died” from their specialty disease, you should call them. If I can ignore the metaphysical impossibility of a dead person phoning a lawyer, pass me another ice cream sandwich. (Or is it “ice-cream sandwich”? I don’t care, I’m on vacation!)
- I also disregard the drug company mandate that I don’t drive or operate machinery until I know how their medicine affects me. (Non-vacation me has been known to ask her TV: “Do I really have to take your pill before I can ever drive again?”)
- I read a British novel or a cool article from the Guardian UK without flinching every time I see a period outside a quotation mark.
- I don’t edit road signs, like the essays in Maryland that casually suggest “Slower Vehicles Stay Right if Conditions Allow.” I can say that in eight letters: “Move Over.” (OK, that one might not be an editor issue; it might be a New Yorker thing.)
- I skip right over words that I’ve learned to stare at when I edit. I revert back to that innocent time when “benefitted” and “cancelled” looked just fine to me. If I’m really having fun, I’ll even spell them “nunchucks” so I don’t have to double-check all the letters in “nunchakus.”
- And this summer, I’ll step away from the chaos of the “Internet” becoming the “internet” and every “web”—spider or online—going lowercase. Two weeks ago, you’d probably be reading this on the Internet, but as of June 1, the AP Stylebook revokes the capital I, as does the Wall Street Journal, and now the New York Times. To an editor who works with multiple style guides, the domino effect is anarchy. But out on the patio, it’s not important. I’m on vacation!
Sheila Gagen is the Director of Editorial Services at EEI Communications. To read more about Sheila, click here.
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