COPY AND PROOF-READING.
In a novel published some time ago, the copy contained a great deal of
conversation that had to be printed in short paragraphs, each chapter
being written in one long paragraph, with no quotation-marks, and
almost no punctuation. The compositors had the injustice imposed upon
them of breaking the matter into paragraphs, and supplying punctuation,
with no recompense for doing this essential part of the author’s work.
How such manuscript could secure acceptance by a publisher has never
ceased to be a source of wonder, as it was not written by one whose
mere name would carry it through; but a greater source of amazement is
the fact that so many writers can make such abominable copy as they do
make.
Certainly the writer should be the one most interested in having
printed matter say what it is intended to say, and this can not be
positively assured unless the written copy is accurate in form. Even
the presence or absence of a comma may affect the sense in such a way
that no person other than the writer can know positively whether the
comma should be in or not.
Very few writers send to the printing-office such manuscript as every
writer should furnish, yet they all demand accuracy in the printed
matter. Let us make a bold proposition. Why should not employing
printers of books combine in the determination to make an extra charge
for every alteration from copy, even to the insertion or removal of
a comma? Why should not authors have to pay extra for the work that
should be and is not done by them in the first instance? Even this,
however, would not change the fact that much manuscript will not bear
close reproduction in print. An author who was making many expensive
alterations in proof was requested to revise his matter in manuscript,
and returned it unchanged, saying that he could find nothing wrong in
it.
Compositors have always labored under the injustice of being expected
to punctuate the matter they set, regardless of bad punctuation in
their copy. How can they know better than the author should know? This
is an injustice to them mainly because they must often change the
punctuation in type, thus losing time for which they are not paid.
The decision is left to the proof-reader, and even the best and most
intelligent compositor simply can _not_ always be sure that he is doing
what the reader will decide to be right. Other matters of style present
the same difficulty.
If any particular style is to be followed, as in capitalization,
punctuation, paragraphing, or any other formal matter, it is not just
to demand that piece-workers shall set their type accordingly unless
the copy is first carefully prepared. In other words, it is a matter
of the merest justice to compositors that ordinarily they should be
allowed to follow copy strictly in every detail. On some kinds of work
this is not so essential, as on newspapers, for instance, where there
are many writers, and matter of a certain kind is always to be set in
the one way.
Publishers and editors of newspapers would be more just to all their
workers, and probably more sure of getting what they want in style, if
they could insist upon formal compliance at the hands of their writers
rather than to throw the burden upon compositors and proof-readers.
Responsibility for style does not rightly belong to the composing-room
and proof-room; but if it must be assumed there, as commonly it must,
every worker in those rooms should have an individual copy of a full
and clear record of style. Those who receive work in book-offices, and
who send it to the compositors, would certainly do well to question
customers closely on all matters of style, especially in the case of
anything other than plain reading-matter. It is well to have a distinct
understanding with regard to complicated matter, and to record it when
made, so that instructions may be clearly given to those who do the
work.
An understanding having been had with the author or publisher, the
manuscript should go first to the proof-reader and be prepared by him,
so that the compositors need do nothing but follow copy closely. Of
course this will not be necessary when the author furnishes good plain
manuscript; but in other cases, of which there is no lack, it will
surely pay.
The correction of authors’ errors is an important part of the reader’s
duty, yet he should be very careful not to make “corrections” where
there is a possibility that the writer wants just what he has written,
even though it seems wrong to the reader. The proof-reader should not
be held responsible for the grammar or diction of what he reads, except
in the plainest instances, as there are many points of disagreement
even among professed grammarians. Plain errors in grammar or diction,
as those following, the good proof-reader will correct.
A New York newspaper mentioned Frenchmen who “content themselves with
sipping _thimbles full_ of absinthe.” The reader should have known
that the men do not use thimbles for the purpose of drinking, and that
_thimblefuls_ are what they sip.
When the proof-reader had a paragraph saying that “the arrivals at the
hotels show a falling off of over 100 per cent.,” he should have known
that this is an impossibility, since it leaves the arrivals less than
none.
When another reader saw something about “the buildings _comprising_ the
old brick row,” he should have corrected it to _composing_. Buildings
compose the row, and the row comprises buildings.
It would not be fair to expect every proof-reader to be thoroughly
up in zoölogical nomenclature. No reader, though, should pass a word
like _depuvans_ unchallenged, because that is the best he can make
of what is written. He should ascertain in some way that the word is
_dipnoans_, or query it for some one else to correct. On the “Century
Dictionary” the editor struck out a quotation, “The miracles which they
saw, grew by their frequency familiar unto them.” His pencil happened
to cross only one word in the first line, and the next proof sent to
the editorial room contained the passage, “The miracles which they grew
by their frequency familiar unto them.”
These are a few instances of remissness on the part of readers, the
last one showing absurdity that should be impossible.
Some things are commonly expected of proof-readers that they can not
with any reason be asked to do. When a person whose initials are J. J.,
for instance, writes them I. I., it is not reasonable to expect them
to be printed J. J. A script I is one thing and a J is another; and no
one can possibly know that the one which is written is not the right
one when there is no clue, as there would be in Iohn. One lesson that
writers seem bound not to learn is that proper names should be written
plainly. When not written plainly they are very likely to be printed
wrong.
Some kinds of changes proof-readers should not make, even if they
think the writing is wrong. When a plainly written manuscript, showing
care at all points, contains something about the “setting up of the
first printing-press,” this should not be printed “setting-up of
the first printing press”; neither should _some one_ be changed to
_someone_, though the barbarous _someone_ happens to be the “style of
the office.” There is no good reason for making a compound of _setting
up_, and there is no reason for making anything but a compound of
_printing-press_; and _someone_ should certainly be removed from the
“style of the office” and the correct _some one_ substituted. These
two examples are selected because they were convenient, not for
criticism merely, but to enforce the fact that, at least in a book or
any work not containing matter from various writers, carefully written
manuscript should be followed in every respect. Some authors have in
this matter a just cause of complaint against printers; but it is
really the result of carelessness on the part of authors in not writing
as their matter should be printed and insisting upon having what they
want.