Could have been the best, but...

books:


	• Copyediting: A Practical Guide Karen Judd Crisp Learning, 2001 - 328 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Review of Every Page perfect

I recently purchased Every Page Perfect by Mary Lynn. I find the book to be indispensable. I don't know what I did without this book. I have used the book and I find a huge difference in the way I present my writing to the public and to editors. I recommend this book to both seasoned writers and beginners out there. Every Page Perfect is 8 1/2 x 11 and shows how to set pages up exactly as an editor would want them for all genres etc. It should be on everyone's book shelf. It is clear, comprehensive and friendly. Don't write without it!

keelia

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Nice Reference Guide

This book is simple yet in-depth. Recommended to anyone who works in copyediting. This may even be useful for people who work in more "creative" writing fields, since it talks about the importance of consistency vs. "correctness."

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Copyediting: A Practical Guide

This is a comprehensive book; the author covers everything you need to know to copyedit, and more. She discusses the uses of the copyediting and proofreading symbols, and when they should be used as well as spelling, grammar, style; numbers and abbreviations; footnotes and bibliographies, typemarking, and handling artwork.

She also explains how (and when!) to write queries, and the differences between copyediting textbooks, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, medical, and science (etc.) texts.

She discusses what publishers are looking for in a copyeditor--what to emphasize in your resume, and what to leave out. The author is an experienced copyeditor, so the book tells you how things really work, not just how they are supposed to work.

The book is well written. It is not hard to understand or tedious to read; and it is very well organized.

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Could have been the best, but...

Karen Judd's "Copyediting: A Practical Guide" is one of the few books on this topic. Any help in this area is appreciated, and Judd's guide is extremely handy.

Pros:

1. Her examples are excellent, unlike some other grammar and punctuation guides. Got a strange sentence construction? Her examples will cover it. Not sure if that appositive needs commas or not? Judd gives the correct answer.

2. Methodical. The book delineates the technical aspects of copyediting well.

3. Covers proofreading techniques and notations not found in style and grammar manuals.

4. The trade paper size of the book makes it far less cumbersome than others that include workbook training. Judd's workbook questions are just as easily managed in the smaller format.

5. The price is right.

Cons:

1. This is an enormous con: There are enough errors in the book to confuse readers. Judd sometimes lays out a rule, but then the example is wrong. (A few other reviewers noted this, too.) In a book on copyediting, you'd expect perfect copy! Needs a revision badly.

2. While the copyediting and proofreading marks are extensive, there are not enough variants listed. Some publishing houses require marks that aren't here. I'm no expert like Judd is, but I've seen far more mark variants in my copyediting experience than she covers.

3. This book is "plain brown wrapper" and could use a layout freshening. Almost too dull to look at.

4. Some of the proofing marks are not crisply printed. As a suggestion, this book would benefit greatly from a two-color printing process that makes the marks stand out from the text more effectively.

5. The paper used in the book's construction is cheap, possibly leading to durability issues over the long run. For a true reference work, this is a shame.

Could have been the best value out there in a copyediting reference, but there are enough cons to relegate it to being merely good. A new edition would be excellent, but one doesn't appear to be on the horizon any time soon. Too bad for us.

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Very helpful, despite errors

I'm just beginning to consider a career in copyediting; this book is one of several that I ordered so that I might gain an understanding of the discipline. Perhaps it's just the edition I have (after all, no one else has mentioned this), but there are several errors (copyediting errors or compositing errors) throughout the book. I'm not talking about stylistic errors--the writing is just fine. For example, in a few of the exercises, the text in the answers differs from the text in the exercise (the text should be identical in both, since the exercise only involves using copyediting symbols, etc.) I can imagine that it would be difficult keeping straight the 'example' edits and the actual edits, but I just found it a little ironic. Most of the errors were small (e.g., the first word of a title is missing an underline), but they stood out more than they would in a novel, due to the nature of the text.

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reviews: page 1, 2

Filled with sound, practical advice, this book is a must if you wish to become an effective copyeditor. In addition to being a comprehensive guide to the ?real world? of copyediting and publishing, sections on diction and style answer practical questions not addressed in other copyediting books.

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