Writing for ResearchIn this process, the editor, or more often nowadays a professional copy-editor, will go
through the text to correct grammar, style, punctuation, referencing, and the other
technical details required to make the journal look neat and professional. You are likely
to be sent a list of “queries”, some of them quite fiddly, which you have to answer
quickly.
This too can be confronting. I once had a terrible argument with a copy-editor who had
taken all my semi-colons out, and replaced them with commas; sometimes this made
nonsense of my sentences. [As the previous sentence shows, commas and semi-colons
perform different functions. When we “hear” the sentence, they represent pauses of
different lengths.]
But again, you can learn from copy-editing. Early in my career I sent a critical essay
about political opinion polls to the Australian literary journal Meanjin. Its founding editor
Clem Christesen was one of the most influential figures in Australian intellectual life. He
was kind enough to accept the essay and it’s now in my list of published works. But
when I got the copy-edited text back for approval, I was appalled. Almost every
sentence had been altered: punctuation, vocabulary, order of clauses, even the
paragraphing. My first reaction was anger at the insult to my splendid style.
When I simmered down, I looked more closely at the editing, and discovered I had been
given a memorable gift. Christesen was a very good editor. Almost every change he
made to my text was an improvement. From that time to this, I’ve been glad to have
criticism, and I’ve tried to see my texts from the point of view of a reader.
TOP: The copy-editor's baneRIGHT: Editor at work: Christesen
(Image: National Library of Australia)