The Newsletter for Journal Publishers
Allen Press, Inc.
July/August 1997
By Challis Breithaupt
Meeting Manager, AM&M
Is the outside of the building clean and properly maintained?
Is there adequate parking for the group? Is it free parking; metered parking; or hourly, daily, or weekly rate parking? Is there an attendant at off-hours during the day and evening? Is the parking lot well lit for use in the evening hours?
Will there be any outside renovation going on to the main building or to surrounding facilities before or during the meeting time? If so, how will this affect your group? Make sure that the facility has a way of providing notification through signage throughout the facility to make people aware of potential hazards.
Will there be any inside renovation going on before or during the meeting? Safety is an important issue as well as the accommodation of disabled participants.
How many other groups will be on-site during your meeting? What will be the size of this group or groups and how will that affect your meeting? Will you be sharing adjoining space with these groups and what will that do to the noise issue?
Do a walk-through of each of the meeting rooms. Are there any obstructions in the room that will alter your room setup? Are there any unusual objects such as a low ceiling with a large chandelier that will impede any audio/visual activity? Any mirrors, windows, or other reflective surfaces that also would affect lighting and audio/visual usage?
What will each room comfortably hold based on the room setup? Think of the participants and the activities that will be performed in each room. Is the space you have contracted adequate for each event? Do you have the best setup in mind for each room? Is classroom better than theater style? Does the facility have enough tables and the right-sized tables for each room?
Is there enough room for the type of audio/visual equipment planned for each room? Is there a sound system available in each room? If not, what is the cost? Can it be tested prior to the start of the meeting? If there are airwalls or sliding panels, what is the impact on noise when all sound systems are on? Can you hear one another? Can you hear other meetings going on?
Are there separate lights for each room or are all rooms controlled by a single panel? Can lights be dimmed so people can take notes or do they have to be turned off completely?
How is the temperature controlled in the hotel? Can each room be set individually or is there an engineering department that controls temperature? Is this department on-site or off-site at a distant location? Also make sure that there is adequate ventilation in each one of your rooms.
Are restrooms and phones accessible? Where are other phones and restrooms located throughout the building to accommodate the group? Are they in good working order?
Are the restaurants adequate for your group? How efficient is the service? Is the staff friendly and accommodating? What are the hours of operation? Are food selections plentiful and reasonably priced? Can special dietary needs be met?
How is signage handled by the facility? Will your group be able to put up special signs or banners on doors and walls? Is there a restriction on the size of sign that can be used? Is there a reader board or a central location where you can plan an announcement of the day's activities? Remember that you want as much visibility as possible so that your participants are not out wandering the hallways while the sessions are going on. If the facility is going to have your group spread out on many floors or the rooms are far apart, you might consider having "hall monitors" to help the flow of traffic from room to room.
If the group is to be on multiple floors is there an elevator to get to each floor? Remember to look for elevators and ramps to accommodate the needs of the disabled.
Is there a business services office in the facility? No matter how hard you plan, there will be last-minute items that need copying, collating, and faxing.
Also, members of your group may need to go to this office to pick up materials that their office has forwarded to them. It is important to know the cost of each of the services provided, the hours of operation, the type of equipment that is available, and if there is a support person in the office to help if someone is unable to operate the equipment or has questions.
Is the puzzle starting to come together? All the pieces should be fitting nicely for you now. If they are not, you need to ask yourself what can be done to get them to fit together. Some answers are as simple as switching rooms around to accommodate your group's needs. Other answers may not be so simple and may require switching facilities or changing meeting dates to make the pieces fall into place.
Remember, the meeting business is like life: full of choices and endless possibilities. If managed properly, meetings can be rewarding undertakings. If poorly planned or managed, however, they can become something you want to forget.
Are you ready for the challenge? 
By Gene Kean, Marketing Consultant and Researcher, Allen Press
Essential to good communication is a "two-way" system for conveying information to all people involved in the advertising program—from the editor to the business office to the printer and back to the advertiser.
By Tom Leonhardt
Library Director, Oregon Institute of Technology
In ordinary conversation, you can make your point with a combination of words, gestures, and facial expressions; and when your listener seems unsure, you can say, "You know what I mean?" Even then, according to your stress, pitch, and intonation, the meaning is different and your listener can then indicate what response is needed if you aren't being rhetorical. Writers do not have this luxury. If you want your readers to understand what you mean (all writers are not so inclined), you must write clearly and unambiguously.
I once had a sign on my desk that said "ESCHEW OBFUSCATION." A friend (a college graduate) saw it and asked in all seriousness, "What does that mean?" If you don't know the answer, if you have to ask, and you are a writer, then friend, you need an editor.
What should your editor do with your manuscript, assuming that you have something to say but are struggling with how to say it? The editor (sometimes a reader, sometimes a referee, sometimes the editor) should give you credit for good ideas and then suggest ways to make your writing better. If extensive work is needed, an indication of what to do next should be suggested. In the rewrite, you will become your own editor if you want to be a successful writer. More about that later.
First, let's talk about what a good editor will not do. A good editor will not steal your voice. You should have enough confidence in your writing to know when you want something left alone and when a change improves on what you started with. Renowned editor Maxwell Perkins may have cut millions of words from Thomas Wolfe's manuscripts, but he still left enough to supply the nation's nineteen-year-olds with several long, wordy, intoxicating novels, prose poems full of promise for aspiring writers (and what young reader, drunk on literature, has not dreamed of writing something that would secure a place in the pantheon of great and near-great novelists?). There may be many greater novelists, but most don't come anywhere near Thomas Wolfe; and we have him and Maxwell Perkins to thank.
While retaining an author's voice, a good editor will look for consistency in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage. A good editor will suggest revisions of awkward constructions without being overly fastidious about artificial rules (e.g., ending a sentence with a preposition). A good editor will have as sharp an ear as a blue pencil and will recognize a well-turned phrase or sentence for what it is, not for what it is not.
A good editor, unless directed and paid to do so, need not rewrite poorly organized articles. The writer is getting credit for the work, so the writer should do the work. The editor and attendant referees, at least in the nonfiction world of library literature, should suggest where work is needed and provide a few good examples, taken from the work in hand. Marking and annotating the manuscript also is in order and is an appropriate way of querying about constructions, usage, statements of fact, and inferences and conclusions drawn from the evidence or analysis thereof.
If the editor is doing all of this, what is left for the author? Plenty, if the author is to succeed and to begin to take pride in writing as a craft, for it is a craft that is a lifelong pursuit for most of us. A writer who takes this craft seriously will learn to self-edit; will learn to appreciate good writing by reading good writing; will simplify his or her approach to language; and will write, write, and write, unconscious of style. The style will come; the style will not be self-evident to the writer; the style will develop with experience and perseverance.
There are no easy ways to good writing as there are no easy ways to anything of lasting value. But there are steps that one can take to create a consciousness about what is good and what needs to be deleted. Chopping off sentences, paragraphs, whole pages is a difficult discipline to acquire. We love our words. They may all be found in the dictionary (let's hope so), but once we write them out, arranging them just so, they become ours. Being an acquisitive society, we are not used to giving up things simply because we don't need them. What is ours is ours.
Writers need to learn to recognize passages that do not serve any good purpose and, in fact, detract from the rest of the work. Think of those words and phrases as clutter in your closet, clutter that you are better off without. Give it to the Salvation Army or toss it in the dumpster, depending on its shape, but get it out of the closet, out of the house.
There are some works that will help you learn this discipline. The obvious one is Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. When studying German at Berkeley years ago, a fellow student (she was a double major, German and microbiology) in the course on German composition (taught by Thomas Mann's youngest child, Michael), revealed that she read Strunk and White at least once a year. I decided that if it were good enough for her, it was good enough for me.
As you are familiarizing yourself with this classic, an exercise in simplicity, you might want to read it a couple of times and then refer to it often as you write an essay or short expository piece, just for practice. You will be surprised and gratified at how much of their advice is etched into your brain where you will have it always, along with your ability to ride a bicycle and recite your twos times table.
Many other books are aimed at helping writers with their writing. Not all are equally good, not all are even helpful much less interesting. I will share a few that I have found helpful and that I pick up from time to time:
"Man has found it no easy undertaking to select and adopt the members of his word family. It has always been a difficult and exacting and oftentimes frustrating job for him to discipline and adjust the children of his vocabulary, such as it may or may not be." This is from the introduction to Mark My Words: A Guide to Modern Usage and Expression, by John Baker Opdycke (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949).
The title is misleading, because it is really a book about the nuances and connotations of words and a lengthy lesson about how synonyms do not always convey the same meaning (connotation). Examples: "He WANTS a job; he DESIRES a home and family; he WISHES for fame and wealth." And "The grass is PARCHED and the leafage WITHERED as a result of the DRY weather."
By today's standards (or lack of), many of Opdycke's distinctions may seem fastidious, artificial, and even outdated, for usage changes with the times. But by reading this work, you will become curious about the word you selected. Is it the right word? Does it say what I really mean or will it mislead by its ambiguity within the context of my message?
A curiosity about words is not a bad thing in a writer so long as you don't freeze up. When in doubt, keep writing and come back later to agonize and edit. If you do it word by word, you will not only never finish, you may have to go to the home for dysfunctional writers where your only intellectual stimulation will be reruns of old sitcoms and game shows. Your mind will not be able to handle anything else, alas.
Another book I find helpful is The Writer's Art by James J. Kilpatrick (Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews, McMeel & Parker, 1984). Here is his justification for this book: "My purpose in this book is primarily to venture a few suggestions, based upon a lifetime as a writer, on how good writers can get to be better writers. I want to speculate on some of the reasons why so much bad writing abounds. Over the years I have acquired a hundred pretty little crotchets, and I propose to trot them out for critical inspection."
This next work is one you are not familiar with, of that I am almost certain, unless you were an officer in the United States Air Force. Don't laugh, this is a good book, one that will almost certainly help you become a better writer. Let me quote from Guide for Air Force Writing (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Air Force, 1969. AF Pamphlet 10-1): "The basic purpose of all writing is to get a message across to the reader; it must convey exact meaning. To serve this purpose well, it must be capable of being quickly read and easily understood.
"There is no set formula for achieving successful writing, but there are guidelines. For example, good writing is logical. It shows a thorough knowledge of its subject, but it never says more than necessary. And it sticks to the subject. Its outstanding characteristic is clarity—clarity obtained through simple, everyday words; short sentences; brief paragraphs; and lack of complicated expressions and jargon. In other words, it is simple, clear, and direct." Enough said.
Finally, I would like to recommend The MLA's Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing, by Claire Kehrwald Cook (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985). I recommend reading it straight through from the "Preface" through "A Glossary of Usage," and on through the "Selected Bibliography." After that you will feel comfortable in skimming chapters or paragraphs as needed. This work is thorough, more thorough than you or I will ever be as we edit our own writing, but we will be more thorough than we ever thought possible or necessary had we not read this vade mecum for those of us who write for professional journals.
I dare say that even those who aspire to the short story or personal essay will find much of value here. And if you are an editor, aside from your Chicago Manual of Style and authoritative dictionary, this is the one work you should own.
There you have it, the secrets to success in the world of library literature and possibly beyond. All that is left is for you to write.
This article originally appeared in the April 1997 issue of Against the Grain. For more information about Against the Grain, phone (803) 723-3536 or write to Citadel Station, 171 Moultrie Street, Charleston, SC 29409.
Tom Leonhardt is the library director at the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls, Oregon. He has edited three books for JAI Press and is the past editor of the RTSD Newsletter and Information Technology and Libraries, a scholarly quarterly (both published by the American Library Association). He is a contributing editor of Against the Grain and has contributed numerous articles, chapters, and reviews to journals in librarianship.
|
By Karen Hellekson, Director of Copyediting Services, Allen Press
Copyediting can be a real challenge, particularly when faced with copy that makes the job difficult. Single-spaced fax copy has the distinction of being the most difficult kind of text to copyedit, since there is no room to write and the letter quality is usually terrible. Slick paper causes pencil and pen marks to smear, and the typist has to squint to make sense of it. Sans serif fonts also make copyediting difficult. These are fonts such as Helvetica, Univers, and Ariel—fonts that do not have little "tails" on the letters to make them easier to read: Sans serif fonts look sleek and modern.
There are several reasons why sans serif fonts are difficult to copyedit. The tight spacing between letters and the lack of little tails makes it hard to check spelling and hard to insert information. Most important, though, it is almost impossible to tell a lowercase L from an uppercase I from the numeral 1, particularly if the author is old-fashioned enough to use a lowercase L as a 1: l and I and 1.
Can you tell the difference? Of course, context helps. In technical texts that contain mathematical and chemical formulae, however, that difference can be crucial. Though editors may have a firm grasp on content, those who deal with the manuscript later may not—copyeditors and typists, for instance.
When copyediting text that may potentially be confusing, mark any capital letters with a triple underline. Indicate lowercase L's with the circled word "el" above the character in question and, if unclear, similarly mark the numeral 1 as "one." Though this is a particular issue with sans serif fonts, there is one other frequently confused pairing that should always be marked: capital and lowercase Os ("ohs") versus zeros.
When are sans serif fonts required? Tensors are traditionally set lightface italic san serif.
|
New Online Journal Now Available
The University of Michigan Press has launched a quarterly online publication on electronic publishing. The Journal of Electronic Publishing (http://www.press.umich.edu/jep) covers all aspects of the growing field of online publishing. Now available for viewing or downloading are articles on copyright issues, policy issues, imaging issues, technical issues, and digital libraries. In addition, the journal has 20 articles packaged into a Special Issue on Internet Economics. In September, JEP will introduce a new format that will combine scholarly articles with essays from professionals working in the area of online publishing. "Scholarship without experience is pedantry; experience without analysis is gossip," says Judity Axler Turner, JEP editor. "Together, scholars and practitioners can widen our understanding of the emerging electronic-publishing field."
|
By Sharon Kindall, Customer Service Representative, Allen Press
One sees a wide variety of business reply cards that are bound into journals and magazines these days. Although there are a number of size and design options, it is important to consider the possible limitations of the bindery equipment when designing these cards.
The first consideration is the binding method for the publication. Books that are saddle-stitched often have a different requirement than those that are perfect-bound (i.e., have a backbone or spine).
For example, for cards that are to be bound into a saddle-stitched book, a lip is required to wrap around the signature to accept the staple. This is not true, however, on books that have a backbone.
If the publication has a backbone, one thing to consider is the spine thickness. If the spine width is narrow, cards that are small (i.e., do not run the length of the spine) tend to add bulk to the backbone and may create a rounded and uneven spine.
For Allen Press bindery equipment, the recommendation for books with a backbone is to have the size of the untrimmed card(s) equal to the size of the untrimmed, folded signatures. This enables the cards to be gathered on the line with the unfolded signatures. This is the most efficient way of handling the cards and the binding.
Placement of the card is another thing to consider. Cards can only be placed under the cover or between signatures. They cannot be inserted in the middle of a signature. The same is true for inserts of any kind that are to be gathered and bound with the journal.
The requirements for cards and inserts will vary from one bindery to another. At Allen Press, we usually are able to use cards and inserts that are not ideally suited to our equipment; it is just a question of efficiency. If the piece is not properly prepared, the bindery line is slowed or frequently stopped as a result.
The best advice I have for customers is to consult with your Customer Service Representative (CSR) on the design of your cards and inserts before they are finalized and printed.
By doing this, you will give the CSR an opportunity to consult with bindery personnel and get back to you with any design changes we might recommend that will make the piece more efficient from a production standpoint. This will save both time and money.
By Gary Michael Smith
Chatgris Press
Although the editorial office may be responsible for ensuring a fair and swift peer review, editors can attempt to maintain standards by incorporating guidelines for a variety of contingencies into author's instructions. And this issue appears to have interest to others as well, as is evidenced by the publication of such texts as The Author's Guide to Biomedical Journals (New York: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., 1997).
Not long ago, the Journal of the American Medical Association developed an authorship statement requiring signature by all authors1. Also, journals may request in their writer's guidelines that authors "conform to 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.'2"
Additionally, in the initial acknowledgment of the receipt letter, an editor may request more information as needed, such as detailed delineation of the responsibilities of all authors if more than four are listed, or if one or more are added during the review process before a final decision is made regarding acceptance of the submission. If this information is not provided in the transmittal letter accompanying the submission, the acknowledgment of the receipt letter can include a paragraph to serve as a reminder, such as the following:
"Additionally, in an effort to reduce the number of authors listed on your title page, (Name of Journal) mandates in the first paragraph of the instructions to authors adherence with the New England Journal of Medicine's Special Report regarding 'Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals.' These requirements concern qualifications substantiating authorship for scientific papers. In addition to criteria listed for authorship (New England Journal of Medicine 1997;336(4):30915), it should be noted that 'Participation solely in the acquisition of funding or the collection of data . . . general supervision of the research group . . . does not justify authorship.' Consequently, you may want to consider removing from your list of authors those names in this category."
If the lead author chooses to follow the suggestion for shortening the list of authors, a request should be made for the signatures of those removed, whether they are moved to the acknowledgment section or removed altogether, in an attempt to prevent litigious consequences: "Editorial policy dictates that changes regarding author status be accompanied by the appropriate signature confirming knowledge of the change. Please have (Name) sign the statement below and return by fax this letter to the editorial office so your manuscript can be processed for publication. Be aware that your paper will not be further processed until the editorial office receives this confirmation. Thank you for your prompt attention to this requirement."
I confirm that I am aware that my name
was removed (moved) from the list of
authors (to the acknowledgment section)
on manuscript (number), "(title)."
Name ________________________
Editors of peer-reviewed journals should look closely at incorporating such steps in an effort to improve the status of true authorship.
Gary Michael Smith is the author of The Peer-Reviewed Journal: A Comprehensive Guide Through the Editorial Process. For more information, contact Chatgris Press, 1037 Milan, New Orleans, LA 70115-2729; (504) 895-5219.
1Lundberg, G., Glass, R. What Does Authorship Mean in a Peer-Reviewed Medical Journal? JAMA. 1996;276(1):75.
2International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Special report: uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. N Engl J Med. 1997 Jan 23;336(4):30915.
Effective July 1, 1997, the area code for Lawrence, KS will change from 913 to 785. The new number for Allen Press, Inc. is
(785) 843-1234. The new number for Allen Marketing and Management and Alliance Communications Group is (785) 843-1235.
|
Each year more than seven billion greeting cards are exchanged in the United States. Total sales approach $7.1 billion. Now the industry, led by such companies as Hallmark Cards, American Greetings, and Marcel Shurman Company, has a magazine devoted exclusively to greeting card retailers.
