Proof-Reading. F. Horace Teall
is unquestionably greater than in the office first mentioned.
Book-offices also have their own intricacies of style, with the additional bother of having to suit the varying whims of authors and publishers. “Many men of many minds” write for the papers, but their various whims need not be humored as those of book-writers must be. Authors of books frequently insist upon having things their own way, and too often the printers have to make that way for them, in opposition to what the authors write. This is certainly something for which the authors should be made to pay. If an author is determined to have certain matters of style conform to a certain set of whims, or even of good, logical opinions, he should write accordingly or pay extra for the necessary changes.
Nothing can be more sure than the fact that every printing-office must have some working rules of the kind classed as the “style of the office,” to which the work in general must conform, even when authors’ whims sometimes interfere. At present almost every office has some style peculiar to itself, that compositors and proof-readers must learn in the beginning of their experience there, and which they must unlearn on changing their place of employment. The greatest evil in this lies in the fact that many of the peculiarities are purely whimsical. Reformation is needed, and it is within the power of a body of proof-readers to devise and inaugurate a practical reform, by choosing from among the various items of style those which seem best to a majority of the readers, and requesting their general adoption by employing printers.
Benjamin Drew’s book, “Pens and Types,” has a chapter on “style” that gives valuable hints for such work of reform. We are there told that the proof-reader “at the very threshold of his duties is met by a little ‘dwarfish demon’ called ‘Style,’ who addresses him somewhat after this fashion: ‘As you see me now, so I have appeared ever since the first type was set in this office. Everything here must be done as I say. You may mark as you please, but don’t violate the commands of Style. I may seem to disappear for a time, when there is a great rush of work, and you may perhaps bring yourself to believe that Style is dead. But do not deceive yourself—Style never dies. … I am Style, and my laws are like those of the Medes and Persians.’ And Style states his true character.”
Among the numerous differences of style mentioned by Mr. Drew are some that should not be classed as style, because one of the two possible methods is logical and right, and the other is illogical and wrong. For instance, Mr. Drew says: “Here, the style requires a comma before and in ‘pounds, shillings, and pence’; there, the style is ‘pounds, shillings and pence.’ ” Such a point in punctuation should not be a question of style, since one way must be better than the other as a matter of principle. In this particular case there is not only disagreement, but most people seem to have fixed upon the exclusion of the comma before the conjunction in a series of three or more items, notwithstanding the fact that its exclusion is illogical and as erroneous as any wrong punctuation can be. The text-books, with very few exceptions, teach that the comma should be used; and, as said above, this seems to be the only possible reasonable teaching. Each item in such an enumeration should be separated from the next by a comma, unless the last two, or any two united by a conjunction, are so coupled in sense that they jointly make only one item in the series. This curious fact of common practice directly opposed to prevalent teaching is instanced as showing how erratic style is, and how necessary it is that the “style of the office” should be fully recorded.
Nothing could be more helpful than a style-card, especially if it be made the duty of some person to add thereto each new decision affecting style, so that the type may be set with certainty that arbitrary changes will not have to be made. Conflicting corrections are continually made by different proof-readers in the same office, and even by the same reader at different times. Such things should be made as nearly as may be impossible, and nothing else will accomplish this so well as a style-card that must be followed.
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