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Archiver > APG > 2008-02 > 1203613947


From: "Jack Butler" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] On writing and editing
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 12:12:27 -0500
References: <200802202114.m1KLDf8w018926@mail.rootsweb.com><004f01c8744b$a40eed30$0201a8c0@YOUR58BA15CF1B><BAYC1-PASMTP029A788FEF608836691040971C0@CEZ.ICE>
In-Reply-To: <BAYC1-PASMTP029A788FEF608836691040971C0@CEZ.ICE>


Alison, your description of the old typewriter paper rolls actually reminds
me of my first computer keyboard. There was no monitor and everything that
you typed went into the computer and also directly onto paper that fed
through the keyboard from a big roll. It was a little strange by today's
standards - but it sure beat the heck out of punch cards.

And you also gave the younger generation among our listers an excellent
example of where the now familiar term "cut and paste" originated.

Jack Butler

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alison Hare" <>
To: "Richard A. Pence" <>; <>
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 10:21 AM
Subject: Re: [APG] On writing and editing


> Richard
>
> I think you have an excessively romantic attachment to the old days in the
> newspaper business, as do many old newshounds, myself included--but not
> when it comes to the writing process. I remember my first job at a daily
> newspaper. We didn't write on pages. We had to write on rolls of paper. If
> we were writing a long feature that meant ripping a very long piece of
> paper from the main roll. If we underestimated, we'd rip off another chunk
> and glue it to the bottom of the first. If we wanted to shuffle
> paragraphs, we had to take a pair of scissors and cut the passage from our
> sheet and then glue it into the new location. If the transition didn't
> work in the new place, it meant retyping. If you could tweak it by
> changing only a few words, you could do that by hand. But too much of that
> and your sheet quickly become unreadable. If writers using a word
> processor (or editors) don't tweak the flow when they move things, it's
> not because it's harder to do than it was before.
>
> Alison
>
> In the days when I was both the principal writer and the editor of a
> series
> of publications, the typewriter was my tool and I often accomplished my
> editing by running the prose through the typewriter two or three times -
> then applying the blue pencil. I did have a secretary then and she (or
> for
> one spell, he) usally caught the typos and often the other more
> substantial
> errors when typing the article before it was sent to the printer to be
> set
> in type.
>
> I recall a conversation I had in the early 1980s with a New York book
> publisher. She lamented that the writings her company was getting lacked
> smooth transitions. Having been struggling with learning to write on a
> computer myself, I immediately realized what was happening. The ease with
> which sentences and paragraphs could be moved around in the work
> processor
> was the culprit. Writers were shuffling things around and the transitions
> were getting misplaced or lost. Writers were also failing to edit the
> full
> manuscript - both on the screen and on paper.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> .
>
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