Did you ever, while you were in the school or college, thought whether “hair care” should be one word, or two words, or hyphenated?
Or, whether “auto maker” should be two words; and if so, why should “policymaker” be one word?
Or, whether “analysing” will take an “s” or a “z”, and on what logic?
Already freaking out? “Who cares?”, that’s what you must be thinking, right?
But for some people, this is the job. That species is called the “copy editor”. You will find people of this species in any newspaper office or at a publishing house, pulling out their hair day in and day out, over such trivial matters.
Life is not easy as a “copy editor”. These people are in a job that is most unglamorous and, more often than not, thankless. Someone told me once that being a good “copy editor” is like being a beautiful lady on radio. Indeed, the fraternity will agree that all the credit goes to the reporters, designers and everyone else but a “copy editor”.
The funny part is, the only time a “copy editor” is noticed is when s/he makes a blooper in a headline or a photo caption.
An example:
Cuba runs out of lavatory paper!
London, Aug 11 (PTI) Tissue is now an issue in Cuba. Yes, the isolated island nation, which has survived economic sanctions for nearly 50 years, has finally been laid low by a key shortage of laboratory paper.
State-run company Cimex, which manufactures laboratory paper, has warned that the global economic meltdown as well as a series of devastating hurricanes have hit the production and it may not even be able to import sufficient supplies till the end of the year, ‘The Daily Telegraph´ reported.
I don’t know what happened to that particular “copy editor” after that.
I read an article on The New York Times once saying that the job of a “copy editor” is to slow down to the extent possible, amid the deadline pressures, think things through, do the math and ask irritating questions. (Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/opinion/16mon4.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=In%20a%20Changing%20World%20of%20News,%20an%20Elegy%20for%20Copy%20Editors&st=cse)
And let me tell you, at 2300hrs, when you are pushing hard for the deadline and find a hole in the story, it is difficult to get through to the reporter in case you wish to ring him up and clarify. The onus is again on the “copy editor”. Does he let the hole go and get a rap from the boss the next morning, or remove the lines and make the story a little less spicy.
And from experience I can tell that it is a precarious situation to be in.
As I stood last night at the shop I buy dinner from, the sikh gentleman asked me, “Yaar, mera bhi kuch chaap de.”
I replied, “Praji, main likhta nahin.”
He asked me again, “Hor ki karda hai?”
And I defended myself by saying, “Ji main stories edit karta hoon aur pages banata hoon.” He made a face as if I was a no-gooder and not worthy of being called a journalist if I was not a reporter. So hard if the life of a “copy editor”.
And to know how seriously this breed takes trivial matters like commas and long dashes, let me recount an amusing exchange with a previous boss. When I went to him with my page once, he seemed unamused by my usage of commas and long dashes on the page, and gave me a suggestion—one that I will never forget. He said, “My dear, commas and dashes are like your zip. If you open them, you need to close’em as well.”
So that is how finicky this species is about these small things.
So the next time you flip through a newspaper or a book, please spare a thought for the “copy editor”.
PS: Thanks to you Honey...without you this post would not have been done...
