Customer Reviews

The Elements of Editing: A Modern Guide for Editors and Journalists

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Plotnick's book may be a tad dated, but his insight into the process of editing and the relationships formed about editors and the rest of the publishing crew are insightful and sound. The book doesn't pretend to be an exhaustive look at the minutiae of editing, but rather to set the stage for the intelligent person to gain context on what goes into making a good editor, along with some of the frustrations along the way. Good primer for the editor's shelf. I've been in the business about 20 years and wish I'd had something like this when I started out.

As someone who has edited newspapers at the college level, I thought I was getting something that would give me a great reference point for a future in journalism. Plotnik's book assumes that the reader has experience with journalism but is new to editing. It is not intended to be a primer showing the would-be editor how to edit; rather, it is designed to be a guide into avoiding pratfalls that can befall a novice (or even a veteran) editor.

While I am fairly pleased with the extent of his advice that can be translated from the time he wrote the edition I am reading - 1982 - into modern times, I am dismayed that the technology he refers to is so outdated. The modern editor does not have to spend 10 minutes staring at a proof page to look at how to set type any longer thanks to technology desktop publishers have at their fingertips.

Plotnik would have been much better served if he had someone well-versed in modern publishing technology update his technical knowledge base.

Whilst the other reviewers loved to thrash a decent book, I for one would like to throw in my two pennies in defense of this fine book. It's not as useful or insightful as I thought it would be, but for a beginner it contains a lot of interesting anecdotes for those who haven't really stepped into the publishing world. The section on printing and photography is very good for giving a general idea which is exactly what I needed. Not the Bible it could've been, but still worth its existence. Want something better, just buy the Chicago Manual of Style.

Much of the information in Arthur Plotnik's book has failed the test of time. It's not any fault of his that technology has advanced, writing and editing practices have changed, or useful references have been supplanted by more current useful references. It is unfortunate that this book was marketed as a parallel to Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, which has passed the test of time.

Read this book anyway for the things which have not changed since 1982. Plotnick's first chapter on the Editorial Personality is candid and well-targeted. He distinguishes the "bad compulsiveness" of fussing over minor grammar and formatting rules from the "good compulsiveness" of following up with writers, re-reading new drafts completely, and keeping projects on schedule. Plotnik's insights about the uneasy alliance between editors and authors are concentrated in Chapter 3, but available throughout the book. He offers good advice for producing quality writing while balancing delicate issues of psychological ownership and voice. "Ideally, the war between editors and authors should be won by neither belligerent, but by the readers." (p. 31).

This books observations on the social dynamics of editing are recommended to both editors and authors. Just read around the other parts. It's worth the effort. Readers looking for more useful guidance about editing for writers may want to read Susan Bell's The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself.

Much of the information in Arthur Plotnik's book has failed the test of time. It's not any fault of his that technology has advanced, writing and editing practices have changed, or useful references have been supplanted by more current useful references. It is unfortunate that this book was marketed as a parallel to Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, which has passed time's test.

Read this book anyway for the things which have not changed since 1982. Plotnick's first chapter on the Editorial Personality is candid and well-targeted. He distinguishes the "bad compulsiveness" of fussing over minor grammar and formatting rules from the "good compulsiveness" of following up with writers, re-reading new drafts completely, and keeping projects on schedule. Plotnik's insights about the uneasy alliance between editors and authors are concentrated in Chapter 3, but available throughout the book. He offers good advice for producing quality writing while balancing delicate issues of psychological ownership and voice. "Ideally, the war between editors and authors should be won by neither belligerent, but by the readers." (p. 31).

This book's observations on the social dynamics of editing are recommended to both editors and authors. Just read around the other parts. It's worth the effort. Readers looking for more useful guidance about editing for writers may want to read Susan Bell's The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself.

This book was first published in 1982. Since then a lot has happened in the world of 'publication'. In his last chapter Plotnik does take a look at the electronic future, wonders if the editor will be obsolete, insists he will still be the same underpaid communicator and connections- person he was then. Plotnik sees the advantages in efficiency and speed of the computer - revolution, though his work was written before the Internet came into being, and showed us all that the Universe of words which is being daily produced needs a lot more editing than it is being given.
In any case a veteran journalist and editor Plotnik has written a highly informative guide. He has chapters on the Editorial Personality, on Ten Basic Steps in Processing a Manuscript, on the relation between Editor and Writer, on Line Editors and their Craft, on Copyright, on the Book Editor, on Art for Communication's Sake, On Basic Photography for the Editor. Again the Afterword is on the Electronic editor.
Here is one small example of the kind of sage advice Plotnik provides in this work.
" In my experience I have found that two editorial- level readings of galleys and two of pages will catch 99 percent of the errors. Unfortunately, the remaining one percent are so often the mistakes that cause not just embarrassment, but trouble- for example, erroneous numbers for ordering merchandise or securing additional information, misspelled names in bibliographies, and transposed identifications under portraits."
This work may not cover the most recent developments in the world of publishing, but it still has plenty of useful advice on the whole business of editing.

Thumbs down. As a professional writer and editor, I can't imagine why the publisher of this book would put the word "modern" on its cover. The book has some enduring qualities, but it refers to desktop publishing hardware as "VDTs or video display terminals" and makes no mention of the Internet.

I would advise other media professionals to wait for this book to come out on 8-track!

Plotnik spent several pages at the start of his book glowing over how essential and perfect it is for editors needing a handbook. but upon reading it i saw it has nothing to do with modern journalism - he wrote of VDTs, stupid and irrelevant advice to reporters, and other stuff so tangential that i don't even remember what it was - nohting whatsoever about how to better edit a story. i wonder if his work would have been of any use even before computers revolutionized the profession. i think not, else i could have gleaned at least one useful thing frm the work, which i did not. i kep t waiting for him to writ e somehting relevant about editing and he never did. i returned the book it was so bad. in fairness, he may have updated his book; i read an early 80s version. but for the edition i read, one star is too generous a rating for this waste of paper.

the best book i've read on editing is a book on writing: william zinsser's 'on writing well.' if you write well, you will know bette r how to edit well. zinsser's book changed my life. go read it.