seanan_mcguire: (princess)
[personal profile] seanan_mcguire
Well, I just finished copy-editing my friend's manuscript and returned it for review. Because I am virtuous and hard-working and industrious and stuff. (I am now awaiting the crews of trained ninja assassins and rabid pixies to burst through my bedroom windows and slaughter me, but that's another matter altogether.) As my reward, I shall go and see Bolt with my housemate. That's how we roll around here. Oh, yeah.

I'm actually quite pleased with myself. I managed to copy-edit -- lightly, but still thoroughly -- an entire manuscript, while not falling behind in my own (often self-assigned) deadlines. As I said earlier, I have some things I have to finish this weekend, but none of them have been endangered by my taking the time, so ha.

Copy-editing someone else when I spend so much time being copy-edited was interesting, because I've learned a lot of rules of grammar and punctuation without intending to; they were hammered through my admittedly thick skull through constant and occasionally angry repetition. (You'd be angry too if you'd given me the same correction fifty-seven times.) There are a lot of casual behaviors, text-wise, that are technically incorrect, but which we happily do anyway. What's interesting is that they often create a slight feeling of 'something is wrong here' when we look at those sentences in a critical fashion, yet without knowing the actual rule, we may or may not be able to articulate the actual problem. The brain is fascinating. So is the language.

...wow, that was all a little closer to 'deep thinking' than I like to be on a Saturday afternoon immediately after completing a large task. Blame it on the soda the size of my head (which is woefully now gone to the great soda fountain in the sky).

Off to the movies; don't burn down the Internet while I'm away, and I'll reward you later with my cranberry sauce recipe.

Date: 2008-11-22 10:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jimhines.livejournal.com
You know, I wondered what was slowly downloading to my inbox :-)

Date: 2008-11-23 01:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com
See, here I was, all politely oblique, and you go and out yourself. You brave, brave soul. Where are my ninja assassins come to murder me for spanking your baby?

Date: 2008-11-22 11:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladymondegreen.livejournal.com
And to copy edit the copy editor, that's _given_ not _give_ in "You'd be angry too if you'd give me the same correction fifty-seven times."

*runs to try to outpace the ninjas*

Date: 2008-11-23 01:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com
Screw the ninjas, I'm sending the flying plague monkeys.

Date: 2008-11-22 11:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] aiglet.livejournal.com
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, proof positive that [livejournal.com profile] seanan_mcguire can be taught to use articles and adverbs correctly!

Date: 2008-11-23 01:35 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com
You're very smug right now, aren't you?

Date: 2008-11-23 01:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] aiglet.livejournal.com
Would I do a thing like that?

Date: 2008-11-23 01:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com
Let me think about th--YES YOU ARE. No thought is actually required.

Date: 2008-11-23 08:33 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com
See, I'm glad I'm not defending alone over here.

FREE DDP

Date: 2008-11-23 06:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] palmer-kun.livejournal.com
To commemorate the release of "Chinese Democracy", Dr Pepper is offering a free 20oz bottle to everyone.

The catch? You have to sign up for it TODAY ONLY (Sunday the 23rd) and then they mail you the coupon.

http://www.drpepper.com/freeDrPepper/

Confirmed True by Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/drpepper.asp

I'm not in the USA, so no DDP for me. But you always need more, so I come bearing the news

Date: 2008-11-23 08:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] keristor.livejournal.com
The phrase "we happily do" is one of the ones which gives me pause -- it feels like a split infinitive, but it isn't, and the cultural hammering about not splitting infinitives is so strong that it "feels wrong" (never mind that I have no actual objection to happily splitting infinitives, "to boldly go" has a different (and, I feel, stronger) meaning from "to go boldly", although dangling prepositions are things up with which I will not put).

We all have internalised different things which we dislike in sentence structure: some people dislike run-on sentences, nested parentheses, the Oxford comma (or lack thereof), and ellipsis...

Date: 2008-11-23 08:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com
Isn't the brain fascinating? All these treatments of a common language.

January 2024

S M T W T F S
 123456
7 8 910111213
14151617 181920
21222324 252627
28293031   

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 30th, 2025 11:12 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios