"It is not the ctitic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

~Theodore Roosevelt

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Copyediting

So, I started my homework for my editing class. It's really interesting and kind of exciting. I don't like the idea of editing because I don't want to be at the mercy of a writer-I like to say things a certain way. But then... as a writer you're at the mercy of an editor correcting things. Just not as much so.

Anyway, I found this quote:

"a copyeditor must read the document letter by letter, word by word, with excruciating care and attentiveness. In many ways, being a copyeditor is like sitting for an English exam that never ends: At every moment, your knowledge of spelling, grammar, punctuation, usage, syntax, and diction is being tested."
-The Copyeditor's Handbook

Kind of scary comparing a career to an exam. A constant exam. But I love correcting my own work and I love making things sound and look better and make more sense :)
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