Is it alright to have my mother or friend edit my manuscript?

Although it’s tempting to cut corners and ask family or friends to edit your manuscript, experience has shown that going this route does not lead to a well-edited book. While it’s true that we all know how to read and write in English, passed our English grammar courses in school, and are avid readers with good eyes for catching typos, there’s a lot more involved in editing than meets the eye.

This post is the first in a series describing the editing stage of book publication. Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with dozens of grammar rules and the exceptions to those rules. My goal is merely to give you a behind-the-scenes view of the editing process so that you have more appreciation for the value of a good editor.

We begin with the most basic element of editing: spelling.

Spellcheckers

Long gone are the days of typewriters, when you had to change the black cartridge with a white one in order to erase your spelling mistakes. Today, we all work on computers with word processing programs, like Microsoft Word or Google Docs. As soon as we misspell a word, a red line appears underneath the snafu, beckoning our attention.

This leads us to believe that all we need to do in order to write a manuscript with perfect spelling is utilize our word processor’s omniscient spell-checker. However, as good as this feature is, it is not as foolproof as you might expect.

Here are two sentences with mistakes that Word’s spellchecker didn’t catch:

Please complete the entire order from.

The President is trying to unit both major parties.

The errors are obvious to us humans, because we “hear” the glaring mistakes, but Word doesn’t hear or think. It just acts on command, and the words from and unit are correct as far as it is concerned. The moral of the story: Use spellcheckers, but don’t rely on them.

Hyphens

Another limitation of spellcheckers – and humans too – is that they don’t always know the correct spelling. The English language is constantly in flux, with new words and modified spellings updated regularly.

Take, for example, the word e-mail. It doesn’t appear in the hardcover dictionary that I received as a high-school graduation present. One day, it popped up in the modern dictionary, and it was spelled with a hyphen. As of this writing, Merriam-Webster still prefers the hyphen (email is only considered a variant), but other convention-defining sources, like Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (7.89), have become more progressive and recently changed the preferred spelling to email. Eventually, Merriam-Webster will follow suit.

Another interesting question about hyphenation involves the word good-bye. Is this hyphen necessary? Maybe it should be spelled goodbye? Well, both Merriam-Webster and Chicago Manual of Style concur that, in this case, using the hyphen is correct.

Now, just to confuse you a little, how would you spell that electronic, handheld gadget for reading books? Ebook or e-book? Believe it or not, both Merriam-Webster and Chicago Manual of Style agree that it is spelled e-book. Go figure that one out!

What lesson should we take from these examples? That it is still important to have an updated dictionary at your fingertips when you are writing or editing. The most highly recommended American English dictionary is the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, which you can access for free online. (For avid bibliophiles, Merriam-Webster’s website also offers fun word games and informative videos. Here is a link to a video explaining how words get into their dictionary.)

How Many Words?

Spelling includes more than just choosing the right letters. Let’s take a look at this sentence:

Michael published his autobiography in both hardcover and softcover editions.

Are the words hardcover and softcover correct, or should it be hard cover and soft cover? Once again, we turn to the dictionary for guidance, and we find that both of these words are indeed spelled as single words, hardcover and softcover.

Now, let’s take a look at another example:

Rachel’s fabulous new novel is destined to become a bestseller.

Is this sentence correct, or should it read as follows: Rachel’s fabulous new novel is destined to become a best seller? Here, Merriam-Webster tells us that it is preferable to spell best seller as two words.

It’s Roman to Me

As a rule, whenever a foreign word is written in English letters, it is italicized to show that it is not English (or a spelling mistake). Italics is a modern convention made convenient by the computer. No longer do we underline the word; today we select the word and click on the slanted I.

This rule directly affects transliterated words from Hebrew, Yiddish, and other languages (I hope to devote a future post to transliterations). Thus, instead of writing sefer, it is sefer. Makes sense.
But here is the rub. Read the following sentence and determine whether there are any errors:

The main course at David’s bar mitzvah was schnitzel, lokshen kugel, and kasha.

At first glance, there are several errors. Bar mitzvah, schnitzel, lokshen, kugel, and kasha are all Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian words and should be italicized. But the truth is that the sentence is perfect as it is. Why? Because all of these words have become so common in American culture that they were incorporated into the American dictionary! Yes, these are bona fide English words, so there’s no need to italicize any of them.

Nevertheless, I often chose to italicize some Hebrew and Yiddish words, because otherwise the reader will label my work as shoddy editing. Another reason is that it can become confusing to the reader why some words are italicized and others are roman (roman is letters in regular form). Here is an example of what I mean:

Beryl learned in yeshivah for five years before getting married and joining the local kollel.

Initially, the reader will question why yeshivah is in roman letters, but kollel is italicized. The reason is because yeshivah is in the dictionary, but kollel isn’t. However, since most readers are not aware of this distinction, I prefer to avoid this confusion by italicizing both. After all, it’s okay to italicize yeshivah, because it is also a foreign word.

 

That wraps up the first post on editing. I hope you found it enlightening and maybe even entertaining. The next post will cover your favorite subject: grammar. (Don’t give up yet.)