about the job
So the job is exhausting -- it's been a damn long time since I worked full days, and it takes a lot of concentration to keep catching errors -- but I like it, so far.
I'm working for a small educational development house, copyediting teaching materials to accompany a set of books to be used to teach english to primary-school-age kids who are primarily speakers of other languages. ...Man, there's no easy way to get all that into once sentence. It's fascinating, just thinking about the constraints of trying to teach language when your students don't understand grammar in any structured way. You know, how do you try to explain what the word "from" is for?
Also, because the guidelines require only very short sentences (among other restrictions), we wind up with some really odd ones every once in a while. Like yesterday, doing a lesson on the history of Nantucket: "How did people use whales?" Best. Sentence. Ever.
Yesterday afternoon I had a five-or-ten-minute conversation with the permanent copyeditor on the project about comma placement. I know this makes me a tremendous dork, but that was so cool.
next time: entry on seattle. yus.
I'm working for a small educational development house, copyediting teaching materials to accompany a set of books to be used to teach english to primary-school-age kids who are primarily speakers of other languages. ...Man, there's no easy way to get all that into once sentence. It's fascinating, just thinking about the constraints of trying to teach language when your students don't understand grammar in any structured way. You know, how do you try to explain what the word "from" is for?
Also, because the guidelines require only very short sentences (among other restrictions), we wind up with some really odd ones every once in a while. Like yesterday, doing a lesson on the history of Nantucket: "How did people use whales?" Best. Sentence. Ever.
Yesterday afternoon I had a five-or-ten-minute conversation with the permanent copyeditor on the project about comma placement. I know this makes me a tremendous dork, but that was so cool.
next time: entry on seattle. yus.