Starting at BJU Press
I started work today in the editorial department of BJU Press as a proofreader. I was given a desk in a cubicle, bookshelves containing my very own copies of the fifteenth edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, the fourth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary, and documentation on the Press work flow and house styles. After watching safety videos, getting a tour of the facility, meeting coworkers, and signing a bunch of papers, I was given my assignment for the week. For most of the rest of this week, I’m reading the manual for the editorial department and the Chicago Manual of Style to make sure I know what I’m doing. Having worked on three yearbooks with the work flow being recreated and the documentation written from scratch, I appreciate the precision and detail of the documentation at the Press.
Working at the Press is an opportunity for another kind of education: learning a trade. A trade isn’t something to live for, but to have a trade is to possess a valuable skill. The question will probably be asked, “Aren’t em dashes and syntax and commas and semicolons really boring?” No, they’re not. Proofreading is a contribution to order. The whole universe tends to disorder, but proofreading helps make at least a little part of it more orderly. That contribution is worth something to me.
Posted 17 Jan. 2006 at 10:30 pm | Permalink
I LOVED proofreading at the Press. I still rank that as the best job I’ve ever had. I still can’t believe they actually PAID me to sit and read and find nit-picky grammar and formatting issues. It was like getting paid to do crossword puzzles. I learned so much–and not just about en dashes and em dashes (yes, there’s a difference, and it’s an important one), what prepositions can go with what verb (differentiate FROM, not with), and what page numbers repeat in the index–but also a wide variety of random topics. I got paid to read an entire 10th-grade biology book, for example. You develop great skills at a job like that. I still have an eye for precision (I will not claim my writing is always error-free, but I guarantee I’ll find the errors in yours) and a strange fixation with punctuation. If you ever hit a spell when the gallies are empty, find and read a little book called Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. Or one of the articles discussing the punctuation oddities distinguishing International (British) English from American English. Fascinating stuff. Oh, and say hi to my old pod-mates if they are still there.