UK vs. US

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 170634

Ken wrote:
> > >We are not idiots and we don't want our Harry Potter or anything
else in predigested form from a copy editor. Sorry, Carol....
> > 
> > Bart:
> > Yes, the publishers are treating us as if we were, well, CHILDREN!
> > 
Ken: 
> No, if they were treating us as Children they would know that with
our superior ability to develop language skills we would not need their
> "help". If a 55 year old can deal with this a 12 year old can do it with
> ease. Children would have less trouble with Britishisms than copy
> editors. On the other hand I *am* glad they decided the best course
> of action was to keep our spirits up....
> 
> Ken
>

Carol:
Now, now, I wouldn't insult your profession. Please don't inult mine.
We just do what the publishers tell us to do, and if that includes
changing british english to American English, we do it. And I , for
one, at least appreciate having double quotes instead of single ones.
I don't think it's an insult to kids to remove the more difficult or
unusual Briticisms.

But, of course, that isn't all copyeditors do. If it weren't for us,
you'd have to put up with a lot more ungrammatical or wordy sentences,
spelling errors, and punctuation errors. Too bad no copyeditor
corrected Jane Austen's dangling modifiers.

Neither copyeditors nor publishers think that their readers are
idiots. They just want to make a manuscript as good as it can be based
on a set of preestablished criteria, one of which is saleability and
another of which is readability. As for me, I care about the grammar,
punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, and to some degree, the
dioction, which I like to make as precise and concrete as I can
without altering the intended meaning or interfering with the author's
"voice." If the publisher or editing service says change the British
English to American English, I do it, no questions asked.

The HP books *are* intended for children, and the publishers of kids'
books know what kids will read (or their parents will buy). If there's
a problem with "dumbing down" books for kids, maybe we need to look
elsewhere--the educational system or computers or television or video
games. (BTW, kids used to learn Latin at six and Greek at nine or ten.
They could still do it if "educators" [I don't mean teachers] hadn't
decided that ancient languages were both too difficult and
insufficiently relevant to the modern world to be taught in schools.
Kids learn what they're expected to learn,whether it's grammar and
spelling or "multiculturalism." If they can't read at grade level,
maybe we should blame the school system for grade inflation and
lowered expectations. And if the publishers follow the trend, blame
them, not the copyeditors, who are just employees doing their best to
follow their employers' instructions.

Carol, who wishes you could do my job for a day just to see what it's
really like