English 5365 Week One Post
Topic: Why is style important in your current and/or future workplace?
I currently work for the American Chemical Society as a Technical Editor. We actually follow the guidelines from our own style Guide, The ACS Style Guide, 3rd ed., which is based on guidelines from the Chicago Manual of Style with our own special tweaks geared toward publishing more than 35 journals in chemistry and related fields from authors all over the world.
We enforce American English spelling and usage, logical quotations, and standards for table display and alignment, among other things. Our goals are to make sure that while papers still reflect the author's voice, they are consistent enough in style for our readers, whose grasp of the English language may vary.
None of the papers are perfect and cannot be with the large number that come through our doors, yet we are told that our contribution is valuable.
Style is one of the things that sets the edited papers apart from the unedited or raw manuscripts, not only are grammar and punctuation errors resolved, but consistency is applied where possible. The readers know that related columns of numbers in a table will be aligned on a decimal point and that unrelated columns of numbers will be aligned left. I do not know if this is conscious knowledge or not, I just know that it is expected.
Will style always be important to our readers and my employer? That I cannot answer. If the readers decide that they would rather have the raw manuscript, then I will be out of a job.
I currently work for the American Chemical Society as a Technical Editor. We actually follow the guidelines from our own style Guide, The ACS Style Guide, 3rd ed., which is based on guidelines from the Chicago Manual of Style with our own special tweaks geared toward publishing more than 35 journals in chemistry and related fields from authors all over the world.
We enforce American English spelling and usage, logical quotations, and standards for table display and alignment, among other things. Our goals are to make sure that while papers still reflect the author's voice, they are consistent enough in style for our readers, whose grasp of the English language may vary.
None of the papers are perfect and cannot be with the large number that come through our doors, yet we are told that our contribution is valuable.
Style is one of the things that sets the edited papers apart from the unedited or raw manuscripts, not only are grammar and punctuation errors resolved, but consistency is applied where possible. The readers know that related columns of numbers in a table will be aligned on a decimal point and that unrelated columns of numbers will be aligned left. I do not know if this is conscious knowledge or not, I just know that it is expected.
Will style always be important to our readers and my employer? That I cannot answer. If the readers decide that they would rather have the raw manuscript, then I will be out of a job.
posted by Jessica Badger at
7:19 PM
2 Comments:
Jessica,
Your post reminded me of a quote from Williams when he says, "Perfection is the ideal, but a barrier to done." It sounds like you must work on a tight schedule, so turn-around becomes a priority over finesse (as happens with many of us)!
I also thought it was interesting that you chose the verb "enforce" to describe how you achieve style. My initial reaction was that we are not so compelling in writing classes, but then I thought of the quizzes and tests requiring "the right answer", and "corrections" within writing assignments constantly overwhelming the students. So, our professions may be more similar than I originally thought!
Jessica,
Your post demonstrated that style was very important in technical editing. I agree with you that style helps to make papers readable and understandable to the audience while allowing them to “still reflect the author’s voice.” In other words, style clarifies the content.
In terms of your concern about the importance of style to your readers and employer in the future, I personally think that you can be more positive about your job. Style is one of the things that makes the edited papers look nicer, more professional and consistent than the unedited manuscripts. If your employer wants the published articles to be readily comprehensible to the average readers, he or she has to rely on technical editors like you.
Xiling
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