Grammar, Real Language, Books, and the Movies: An Editor’s Dilemma

A copy editor’s job is to correct the grammar in a novel. But what if the grammar is wrong, yet authentic?

An author whose first language isn’t English caught a mistake in his novel and asked me what the correct grammar was. I told him the translator he hired had used authentic dialogue in the scene. His question did bring up a dilemma for editors, however. What is more important: proper grammar or real language?

When writers craft a scene with dialogue, they want their characters to sound as tangible and real to life as possible. Realistic characters should use realistic language, including imperfect grammar. But what impact does the incorrect grammar have on people who want to learn proper English, such as children and English as a second language speakers?

As an editor, I find myself pondering this dilemma. It’s my job to correct grammar in manuscripts. It’s also my job to let the author know if the characters aren’t speaking authentically. Often, my solution becomes one simple (yet not so simple) rule: correct all grammar mistakes unless a grammar edit results in inauthentic speech.

What I’m about to share are some cases in which authentic language won out over proper grammar. If you had been the editor, and you encountered grammar mistakes like the following, what would you have done?

Point of View

How often have you caught yourself saying, “It’s between you and I”? How often have you heard people around you saying that phrase? Those words are in the movies, books, and my friends’ conversations.

Writers who want to keep their characters in character say, “Let’s keep that between you and I.” We hear that phrase so often, it becomes ingrained in our minds as correct speech. However, we don’t hear people saying, “between you and we” or “between you and they.”

The correct expression is “between you and me.” Nouns that follow prepositions such as “between” are the object form, such as me, us and them.

The use of “me” gets confused in another common example.

A writer asked if it was okay to start a paragraph with “Me and my friend went to see the movie.” The writer said, “Isn’t ‘my friend and I,’ not ‘me and my friend’ the correct grammar?”

The correct grammar is “My friend and I went to see the movie.” However, changing the grammar changes the type of person you are writing about. The choice of spoken words is part of character development.

Character Development

“How are you doing?”

“I’m doing good.”

A character’s choice of words tells you so much about their education, where they are from, family, and personality. A talented writer chooses each word that a character speaks with care.

What can you deduce about a character who says, “I’m doing good at math”? And what conclusions do you draw about a character who says, “She got a real nice raise at her job last year”?

If you love your grammar, or if you’re an editor, you’ll be tempted to correct the grammar to “I’m doing WELL at math” and “She got a REALLY nice raise.”

However, changing one word could change a lot about the character. You could be changing their education level, whether they speak casually or formally, or where they are from.

When an editor reviews a manuscript, there is more to consider than just what is and isn’t correct grammar. They have to know how people speak in different parts of the world! (Often, as an editor, I use this as a very justified excuse to watch movies with dialogue. It’s not wasting time; it has educational value.)

Everyday Speech

Is each of us guilty of making certain grammar mistakes over and over again whenever we speak or write? Probably. I’ve heard educated people who can write reports and essays with proper grammar make simple mistakes when speaking.

For example, I’ve heard people say, “There are LESS cars on the road this year than last year.” This error occurs more often than we may realize. People use “less” as a one size fits all modifier to describe all nouns, whether they are countable or not.

You can have less money, less water, less luck, or less air because these items are not countable. But you have FEWER cars, fewer people, and fewer goals because these nouns are countable.

Grammar also dictates that the present continuous tense is formed with a two-part verb. For example, we say, “ARE you GOING home now?” And we say, “She IS EATING dinner now.” We don’t say, “She EATING now.” That sounds very strange.

But we can drop one of the verbs and say, “You GOING home now?” instead of “ARE you going home now?” and still sound like we are from this planet. In fact, a famous line from a movie drops one of the verbs with this line: “You talking to me?”

In everyday English, it’s possible to drop a word here and there and still sound authentic and correct. As long as your character is mimicking realistic speech, grammar rules may not apply.

Should Movies and Stories Teach Grammar?

What we have is a chicken and egg situation. If movies and stories imitate real life, then could (or should) movies and books change bad habits?

We can already censor sensitive content on social media and movies by blocking or silencing swear words. If characters start speaking with correct grammar, will people follow by example and correct their grammar as well?

Would this approach be met with enthusiasm or rejection by moviegoers and readers?

Several expressions have become a part of the culture of English speakers. For example, “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” Consider also the expression, “I could care less.”

You’ve likely heard these expressions before if you watch a lot of movies or read a lot of books… or Google searched these sayings because you read this blog. Do you know what the correct expression would be if you corrected the grammar mistakes?

For the first one, you can fix the fragment by adding a verb. It may sound unfamiliar, but the proper grammar would be, “Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.” It’s not as catchy, however.

For the second expression, you could question the logic behind it. If a person could care less, then at the moment, they are caring a bit more. To really make their point, they should simply say, “I couldn’t care less.”

Key Takeaways

An editor’s job isn’t just about correcting the grammar in manuscripts for books and movies. Editors also want characters who speak authentically, even if they mimic the errors that real people make when they speak.

Should art continue to mimic life? Or is there an opportunity for art to change the way we speak? What do you think?

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Fashion Trends for Remote Work: What Are You Hiding?

When the pandemic disrupted commutes to work, it challenged us to rethink our wardrobes. Offices shut down and people with desk jobs found themselves working from home in pajamas, yoga wear, or “half-and-half” fashion styles.

So what’s half-and-half? If you’ve attended a virtual meeting, you’ll know what I mean by half-and-half styles. You’re wearing a blazer, shirt, or office casual sweater on top, with leggings, jogging pants and bare feet, socks or slippers where the camera can’t see. Business casual on top, and casual on the bottom.

A year later, after dressing down, people have started to dress back up again. People who still work from home (WFH) aren’t wearing heels and dress shoes yet, but they are raising the bar on work from home fashion. It’s one way to mentally separate your weekend self from your work self, especially if your office and home are the same place.

Here are some fashion trends from the work from home world.

Networking Meetings

When people started to hold meetings at home last year, they were looking for a temporary solution. Those who were new to working from home attended virtual meetings from dining tables or their couches. Room lighting was sometimes dim and their background was the mess of everyday living.

During the second year of work from home, fashion became business casual. People wore sweaters, shirts, scarves, and quality T-shirts. Many had well-positioned cameras and lighting, and virtual backgrounds of offices or a virtual wall with their company information on it.

People had become accustomed to virtual meetings and their routines. Some business owners even had their contact information and company description pre-typed and ready to paste in the chat after they introduced themselves.

If we return to in-person networking meetings, it will be an adjustment not to see company names projected behind people. It will also be jarring to see people from head to foot – and notice that they have a height.

Coworker, Client, and Team Meetings

The height difference is one factor that’s disappeared as a result of remote work. In this new world of entire companies working from home, you may never experience that moment of walking by as a coworker changes from flats to heels, or grabs a suit jacket as you both walk to the meeting room.

In the summer this year, fashion was more casual for team meetings – T-shirts and tank tops, especially if the team is entirely female. When winter arrived, people attended team meetings in sweaters, polo shirts, and shirts. They dressed like they used to when people worked in offices. Or perhaps they did a wardrobe change… we won’t know.

I prefer to dress more casually when working and do a quick clothing change for team meetings. Coworkers and clients I’ve never met in person will forever think that I dress more formally than I usually do. If they ever see me wearing what I really wear while typing away at a project, they may be surprised. Perhaps the surprise might even go both ways. I’m not 100% sure the CEO stays dressed up after a virtual meeting is over. Maybe she exchanges her lovely scarf and fancy sweater for a hoodie. We will never know.

Surprise Meetings

If introverts dislike one thing, it’s last-minute notice that you’ll be seeing people. Back in the days when people worked in offices, and the team suddenly called an impromptu meeting, your first thought wasn’t, “Uh uh. What should I wear?” You’re already at the office.

Your reaction may be different when you work from home. Maybe you got up late so you’re rushing to get an assignment done. You haven’t combed your hair and you’re wearing the grubby old hoodie that never leaves the house. Then you get a DM to meet online RIGHT NOW.

You panic about your appearance, and then you realize: you’ve got an excuse not to go on camera. Sorry, voice only today, you answer. I wasn’t prepared for a video call. Another alternative is to dim the lights so you look better than in real life. You can blame a bad internet connection. Or you say didn’t have time to set up your camera.

I once experienced a surprise at an impromptu meeting. The organizer asked to meet in a half hour. She always had a virtual background of a home office, so when her background had changed to a large designer kitchen, I assumed it was her new virtual background. Then she destroyed the illusion by saying it really was her kitchen and sorry for the mess. She should have said it was virtual kitchen.

Final Thoughts

Some people were already working from home before WFH and remote work became household words. In the second year of the pandemic, it seems that people have turned their home office into their professional work area, and dressing like they’re working in a traditional office. The biggest difference is, they are still dressed for comfort, but the look is more classy.

Perhaps the next step in WFH as technology advances is holographic images of ourselves whenever we attend virtual meetings. Our image could be dressed in a suit or sweater while our real self is wearing an old T-shirt. Why not?  Work from home is continuously being redefined.

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Insights from Bestsellers: Pandas and Punctuation

Does punctuation matter?

The answer can be found in this story about a panda that walked into a cafe, ordered a sandwich, ate it, and fired a gun into the air. Why did the panda do such a thing?

The answer lies in a badly punctuated manual with a definition of “panda”:

“Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.” – Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots and Leaves

How important is it to you to learn punctuation rules?

3 Ways to Increase Your Income If You’re Self Employed

One of the biggest challenges of being self-employed is doing everything yourself, from the actual work to accounting to marketing your business. Eventually, the self-employed want to become successful enough to get a steady workflow and make their ideal income.

Some self-employed freelancers or business owners stop there, but others want to reach higher. Their reputation is established, and they are getting so much business that they cannot do all the work themselves. Here is an opportunity to double or triple their yearly income.

Eventually, instead of being a one-person business running every department, they might hire employees. However, some business owners may not want the headache of managing several people to multiply their income. They may want to continue as an independent freelancer.

Hiring employees isn’t the only option for increasing one’s income, although it is the first one that comes to mind. Here are three ways to increase your income if you’re self-employed and the pros and cons of each method.

1 Hire employees

You’ve always wanted to become your own boss. That’s why you started your own company and became self-employed. The next step is to scale up your company by hiring employees.

Pros

Depending on the nature and size of your business, you could step back and hire people with the right expertise to manage the company. You could hire an accountant and human resources person. Or you could continue with a hands-on role in the company.

When you hire employees, you have resources dedicated to getting your work done. You control their time and schedule because they signed a contract to work part-time or full time, at specific hours of the day for you. If they want time off, they must let you know first.

Having a dedicated team allows your business to scale. You can provide the same services you did before or add more services now that you have the cash flow and resources to hire experts to provide those services.

Cons

Once you hire employees, you are expected to provide a specific number of work hours for your employees each month. It becomes more crucial that your lead flow is steady to ensure you continue to operate at a profit.

You’ll have more management details to look after. Whether you manage your business yourself or hire someone, you will deal with work contracts, tracking employee hours and pay, and other details related to human resources and taxes.

2 Subcontract your work

It’s a wonderful milestone in your career when you have so many clients that you can pick and choose which ones to keep by raising your rates or ending contracts. However, you may want to keep all your existing clients and add new ones instead of turning them away.

One way to scale up your business is to work with subcontractors. For example, if you write articles for your clients, subcontract your work to writers who are building their portfolios and writing experience.

Pros

You will be able to take on more clients and work assignments by working with subcontractors. They provide the same service as you so, in a way, you are duplicating yourself. You charge your clients your usual rate, keep a percentage as a management fee, and use the remainder to pay your subcontractors.

If you enjoy management, you will coordinate what assignments need to be done, which subcontractor needs to complete them, and get the assignments to the client on time.

Cons

Most likely, your subcontractors are developing their writing experience or cannot steady clients themselves. Part of your time is spent managing their work, from assigning to checking what they do. If you dislike management, you could hire someone to look after these details.

Another challenge is if the subcontractor’s work isn’t up to standard, you’ll find a lot of your time is spent editing their work. However, when your subcontractor gains more experience over time, they will charge higher rates and want to work directly with their own clients.

3 Collaborate with businesses that offer complementary services

You are highly talented at what you do, but what if your clients need services related to what you do – but are beyond what you offer? For example, you offer writing services and you notice that your clients often want graphic design as well. You could become a jack of all trades. Or you could start an agency or hire employees.

Another option is to collaborate with other freelancers or business owners that offer services that complement yours. Partner up with a graphic designer or website designer so your clients can find the services they need in “one place” instead of looking for them independently. When you refer a client to your collaboration partners, you get a commission based on a percentage or rate that you’ve both agreed upon.

Pros

If you’re very talented but building up your clientele as a freelancer, working with successful collaboration partners will help to get you clients. Their clients already trust them, so they are extending that trust when they refer business to you.

Whether you’re referring or receiving business, this partnership expands the services you can offer to your clients without learning those skills yourself. You also don’t have to deal with learning how to manage a company or employees.

Cons

The relationship relies on a certain degree of trust. When you refer a client to a collaboration partner, the client’s trust in you is on the line. If that partner doesn’t provide the quality of service your client is expecting, your reputation will also be affected.

Another challenge is your partner’s availability. They may not be available at the time that your client needs their service. When that happens, your client may work with another service provider so you won’t be getting a commission.

Accounting is also a consideration. You’ll need to figure out how much commission (or referral fee) to give to your partner for each contract and how to keep track of those amounts.

Key Takeaways

It’s a sign of success to be faced with this decision: turn away clients or keep accepting new ones although you don’t have enough hours in the day to do the work. At this point, you can scale your business by hiring employees or subcontractors. Or, you can rely on your client’s trust in your reputation to recommend them to your collaborator partners. Any of these choices can increase your income and your ability to provide more to your clients.  

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