LDSPMA

Empowering Latter-day Saints to spread light and truth by connecting them at the intersection of faith, creativity, and professional skill

Craft Skills

The 3 Cs of Editing: Clarity, Consistency, and Correctness.

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By Devan Jensen

As editors, we focus on three Cs: clarity, consistency, and correctness.

Clarity

Clarify, but use a light touch. “A light editorial hand is nearly always more effective than a heavy one. An experienced editor will recognize and not tamper with unusual figures of speech or idiomatic usage and will know when to make an editorial change and when simply to suggest it, whether to delete a repetition or an unnecessary recapitulation or simply to point it out to the author, and how to suggest tactfully that an expression may be inappropriate. An author’s own style should be respected, whether flamboyant or pedestrian” (The Chicago Manual of Style, 2.48).

Fix or query ambiguous statements. Make sure the author has a clear sense of audience, purpose, and focus. Check thesis statements, topic sentences, and transitions.

Address excessive passive voice. You don’t need to fix every passive; about an 80 to 20 ratio of active to passive voice works well in most writing.

Consistency

Edit spelling, hyphenation, abbreviations, punctuation, number treatment (numerals or spelled out), table format, and citation format. Consult reference books and reputable websites for spelling of names, historical events, and terms.

Create a style sheet. As you go, make an alphabetical list of names and capitalization or hyphenation of terms.

Edit chapter titles and subheads for consistency. Read chapter titles and subheads in a separate pass. Make sure they are consistent, and get a basic understanding of organizational issues and pacing problems (too much or too little time on any one concept).

Correct capitalization. If authors neglect putting in subheads, add them or ask the author to do so. Subheads are the road signs to get from here to there; without them, the reader is lost.

Correctness

Check facts and figures. If the author claims that Uncle Heber was born in 1920 and died at age eighty, check the math. Write down the solution in the margin (so others will know that you checked).

Check sources. Ensure accuracy of quoted information and source citations. Watch for plagiarism (quoted information without quote marks). Query missing information.

Check notes for completeness. Look up missing information or query the author.
Prepare front matter for books. Produce clean copy for half title, title page, copyright page, and contents page. Double-check chapter titles for accuracy.

Reread for accuracy. Skim through the manuscript again to catch errors you missed while fixing other problems. This pass is where you will catch small but significant errors—or even, heaven forbid, that glaring error in the title or contents page.

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Katherine Farmer’s “Cracking the Story Code”

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By Amy White

Cracking the Story Code: Increasing a Work’s Success through Age-Appropriate Plot Patterns (An Introduction)

Each stage of human development has a corresponding plot pattern. Because of this, young readers will either accept or reject a work depending on whether it parallels their patterns of thought.

Finding the right plot pattern for each developmental stage doesn’t take a degree in Piagetian philosophy, but it does help to have the insight of one who has studied human development and how it can be applied to narrative works.

There are five plot pattern “pure forms,” three of which are drawn from Aristotle’s classic model:

1. Simple: Single goal plot pattern, in which the entire action seeks to resolve the initial problem, with clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. Often found in children’s picture books such as The Cat in the Hat or Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

2. Episodic (two varieties):

a. Nesting Episodic: Self-contained story units that pile up on each other, but are not connected with a story line. Same characters, new stories (e.g., Christmas Story, Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).

b. Latticing Episodic: Open-ended story units that spiral and pile up cumulatively. Same characters with multiple stories where there is an over-arching story line through-out (e.g., Lobel’s Frog and Toad are Friends, and many of today’s television series).

3. Complex (Level 1): Single on-going action that includes the element of surprise, at least one reversal, and a recognition process. These works are psychologically complex, but with action that is not hard to follow (e.g., most one-act plays, Patterson’s Bridge to Terabithia, Oedipus Rex).

And, after the study of more than 2,000 works in 10 geographic regions in 320 library systems, two more plot patterns emerged:

4. Cumulative: Incidents that pile upon other incidents with the only unifying tie being the central character (e.g., The Gingerbread Man, There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly).

5. Paralleling: Multiple story lines that run parallel to each other, at the same time. Each story line is unique, and usually pulled together by the end (e.g., Pinballs by Byars, television series such as Modern Family).

Pre-Operational Thought: Zero to Seven-year-old Children
This Intuitive phase of development prefers simple and single-goal patterns as found in the Simple and Cumulative plot patterns—patterns where the entire action seeks to resolve the initial problem. Narratives that have a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. Works such as Seuss’s Cat in the Hat. These children judge by a single clue, are preoccupied with the parts of the whole, as they are not able to see the forest for the trees, and will always judge a work by its end—not the process that got them there.

Concrete Operational: Seven to 11 year old children.

The awareness that others do not share their personal perspective identifies this age group. The discovery of other points of view leaves this age with a need to verify their ideas with concrete evidence supporting their view. This age prefers a narrative that has neat and self-contained units, like those found in episodic plot patterns. Examples include Lobel’s Frog and Toad Are Friends, up to the mixed nesting and latticing episodic pattern of Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The need for this age to have near reality–with the fantastic taking place within the home, or nearby. Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is considered nearly unbelievable, until the concrete and seemingly real machines are introduced. Machines that can be felt, seen, and heard, that then justify the existence of the remarkable and fantastical the story contains.

Formal Operational Thought: 12 year old children, young adults, and cognitively mature adults.

As a child’s thinking matures at age 11 or 12, they are capable of shifting to a higher and more complex level of thought, and Complex plot patterns. This shift usually settles into an equilibrium by age 16. At this point they begin to find irony as a form of humor, along with satirical works that contain hidden and subtle meanings. Interweaving, paralleling stories—works with multiple plots and subplots—like those found in Collin’s Hunger Games, or Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, along with Shakespeare’s works are found to be comprehensible and even fun.

The above plot patterns are not a complete listing, there are mixes and variants that branch off of, and blend, the five “pure forms.” Variations that also bring in differing developmental ages. It is merely a launching point for delving into the powerful impact that appropriate plot patterns can have when they are matched to appropriate developmental stages. You will find that, as you match your work’s target age with their developmental capabilities through deliberate plot management, you will be keeping those audience gateways open. And we as producers of narrative works should always be looking for those gates. Every mental gate you successfully identify and keep open will put you yet another step closer to influencing the world for the better through your good works.