Globalization is not just a phenomenon that has transformed the world economy, market relations, technology transfer, and information technology; it has also radically changed the type of content that readers, writers and editors around the world are expected to be conversant with in the course of a day’s work.
With the outsourcing of writing and editorial services to countries located halfway around the world, today, a writer located in Bangalore may be called upon to generate an article on an event happening in China; an editor in the Philippines might have to tinker with website content authored in the United States; and a production editor in the UK might have to review proofs of a book about medical tourism in Malaysia.
Arguably, no other period in world history has stretched the abilities of laypeople and experts alike to confidently and competently negotiate huge differences in time, place, culture, language, ideas and viewpoint while also ensuring clarity and accuracy in all communications.
Enhancing cultural literacy skills
To keep our communications –emails, white papers, book manuscripts or website content – clear and current, today’s content specialists have to position themselves on the cutting edge of language and information. As authors (and the subjects they write about) move beyond the traditional frameworks of Anglo-Saxon prose, there is an urgent and pressing need for writers and editors to enhance their cultural literacy skills, and their knowledge of current affairs and awareness of English usage in the world today.
Copy editors, traditionally perceived as the guardians of English language usage, are the ones at the front lines of the rapidly changing conventions governing language and usage. Whether to use the spelling “al Qaeda” or “al-Qaida”; when to use the word “that” and when to use “which”; keeping track of whether a word has become accepted in mainstream English usage or whether it is to be treated as a “foreign” word; verifying whether historical dates or names of important people (like the president of a country) in the content being edited are accurate or not; all of these tasks fall within the ambit of a copy editor’s role.
Outsourcing copyediting
With the advent of outsourcing, and particularly the outsourcing of editorial services to Southeast Asia and the Far East – regions of the world where a number of countries are traditionally non-English-speaking – debates have erupted over whether or not editors from a different culture can successfully meet the editorial standards of their native/domestic counterparts in the West. When media groups in Asia, Europe and the US first started outsourcing editorial and reporting functions to India, heated debates hosted by various Internet forums raged on as to whether it was really possibly to outsource functions that were embedded in a nation’s culture – functions such as copyediting -- to another location halfway around the globe.
Take, for example, the perspective of Roy Peter Clark of Poynter Online: “Do Indians understand our culture? Do they know who Eva Longoria got married to?” He concluded: “While Indian editors may be very good at what they do, copy editors need to be part of the local fabric of the community to do their jobs well.” To put this another way: Would an American copy editor be able to copy edit an Indian newspaper as well as an Indian copy editor?
Variations in the English language
The displacement of content into an unfamiliar cultural context is one challenge; another is the English language itself. In working with American and British customers over the past six years, I have seen not only customers hesitating to send high-level editorial work to India, but also some of the difficulties Indian editors experience with British and American English and with material from those cultural contexts.
Be it a matter of deciphering an arcane reference to what was once a topical issue in 1960s America or a decision about whether to capitalize or lowercase the word “government” or “Prime Minister,” once you cross cultural lines and geographical borders, an element of ambiguity and relativism creeps in, as an editor is likely to be influenced by linguistic norms prevailing in his or her culture while working through such problems.
For example: Americans are more accustomed to what is known as the “down” style – lowercasing even “important” nouns – in India, being more influenced by British English, we are in the habit of capitalizing important nouns. Therefore, while copyediting in a cross-cultural context, there is not only a considerable amount of new learning to be acquired, there is also some “unlearning” to be done as well.
On the flip side, the abundance of publishing services providers that have sprung up in India over the last few decades, all of which offer various levels of editorial services at lower rates, suggests that despite the pros and cons of editorial outsourcing, India continues to be a hot destination for overseas publishers.
The question is: how can editors and writers working in a cross-cultural environment keep themselves current and relevant in these times of rapid change?
Some suggestions:
Read widely, and make sure your reading is current. Take advantage of the rich resources available on the Internet and make it a habit to browse a variety of publications from different countries: the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Times, the Economist and others all have regularly updated websites, and they are an sources of information about events taking place around the globe as well as about language and usage.
An easily accessible resource that covers some of the basic elements of style that surface while copyediting is the Economist’s Style Guide. Check it out at http://www.economist.com/research/styleguide/. It is particularly useful because it also covers a number of style conventions followed in Europe (for example, whether to lowercase or capitalize “euro”).
Without a doubt, the grandfather (or grandmother) of all style manuals is the formidable 956-page Chicago Manual of Style. If you want to be a serious copy editor, I recommend buying your own copy and using it till it is dog-eared. Check out their website at http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html, particularly the always-entertaining and enlightening Q&A section. Try writing to them with a copyediting query – they’re usually prompt at replying, and its always gratifying when they acknowledge your query!
A humorous and informative perspective on, among other things, punctuation can be found in Lapsing into a Comma, by Bill Walsh.
Of course, lest we forget, there’s always that old chestnut, Strunk and White’s Elements on Style, for simple and useful tips on writing well.
Try your hand at writing your own articles – if anything, it will make you sensitive to the authors whose works you edit and more understanding of the struggle to communicate thoughts and ideas through the written word. A little empathy goes a long way.
Editorial work is unique with respect to the kinds of demands it poses on its practitioners in this era of globalization. Staying current, well informed and up-to-date is the main challenge facing today’s content and publishing professionals, and a broadening of one’s knowledge base is essential if one wants to succeed.
Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in April, 2010. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.
