To edit or be edited?
I have been doing a great deal of editing lately. I am working on a book that will be made up of documents concerning the life of Judge Richard Parker, the judge who sentenced John Brown to death.
I subscribe to a grammar editor called Grammarly.com. There is a free service from them, but I pay for the high-price spread.
Documents from 1840 to 1880 make up most of the Parker book. Grammarly is hilarious to read when it examines 19th Century writing:
When you are working on a document--Word, email or this blog--
Grammarly highlights the offending word or phrase and adds the comments in a column to the right. I ignore most of its comments about old-fashioned writing style and look only for misspelled words and other typos. Of course, the spelling is different too and once I check the original handwriting, I ignore those offenses as well. It does help me find my typing errors!
Much like other services, Grammarly provides weekly feedback.
Since I am editing old documents, I don't pay too much attention to its assessment of my regular mistakes. I love commas, but Judge Parker did not!
I proofread the blogs we write for Three Savvy Broads, but my co-authors are also good at spotting errors. I also proofread articles for the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation magazine, providing one more check for the editor. I get much practice editing!
So it felt a little strange when I received editorial feedback on an article I submitted to the Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society Journal. There were not too many changes, and most came from differences in style. But one question really bothered me. I was afraid that I had over-footnoted because I wanted to show that I had verified all the information I presented. A question about the correctness of a fact was a surprise.
I went through about 100 pages of notes to find where I picked up the fact and could not find it! I emailed the Library of Virginia to find the correct answer, and they answered one day later! I had included an incorrect fact, and a good editor, Bob Grogg, spotted it!
No matter how good your editing skills are, a second set of eyes are essential!
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