Writing and Research for Graphic Designers

(Ray)

(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers

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(Ray)

(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers

#175 Dtp:225 Page:37

018-055_28858.indd 37 8/30/12 4:42 PM

Writing & research for graphic designers

(Text)

36

The editor’s role is not to scold, however. First and foremost

it is to prepare the text for general consumption—which means,

in part, taking out bad or mixed metaphors. The edited text

should be as clean as possible, absent all the common gram-

matical and spelling mistakes, but also written so that

the principal points are not buried under minor ones. It is the

editor’s responsibility to give your manuscript a good washing.

There are routinely a few editors that handle a manuscript

meant for publication. Usually the editor who assigned the

book, article, essay, or whatever gives it a once-over for

meaning and sense. She might raise relevant questions to sort

out confusion, or perhaps suggest that more information be

included to help illuminate the themes. Having more involve-

ment from this first line editor is all for the good because she

is presumably fluent with the subject. In the next stage, after

rewrites are made and queries are answered, the manuscript

should go to a copy editor. (Note: If your manuscript is not

sent to a copy editor, inquire why not. Not a single word

should be released without the copy editor’s seal of approval.)

The copy editor is more than a mechanic, responsible for

tuning under the hood: He is the guardian of the written word.

New writers cannot function without them; old writers have

learned to rely on them.

Armed with blue pencils, copy editors will cut through

tangled phrases and clauses, and insert em dashes, semicolons,

and colons where appropriate. Some will rewrite your garbles,

others will make suggestions, and still others will ask you

what you meant to say. Sometimes, making a manuscript

make sense is as simple as finding better words; other times

it demands restructuring many paragraphs—even an entire

essay. A good editor is to be listened to, although there is al-

ways room for argument. When I said my “In the beginning”

phrase was meant to be a cliché, with a wink and a nod to

the reader, my editor understood, tried to make it a little

better, yet decided to keep it in. After all, it is my book.

But more often, a skilled copy editor will hear discordant

and see misplaced words that are right in front of the writer’s

eyes yet invisible to him. The writer, even of a technical tract

or business exchange, is invested in the writing. The copy

editor is not. Sure, he wants the text to be as good as it

can be, but in an objective, more or less detached way.

A great copy editor is able to do invasive surgery without

leaving a scar. He will remove extraneous this and superfluous

that, making the flow of the prose smoother and more enjoyable.

If you never compare your original manuscript to the copy-

edited version, you will barely know the difference. Reading

the “playback” (which is what edited copy is sometimes

called), you cannot help but be self-satisfied; you will

doubtless say to yourself, “I’m a darn good writer, after

all.” In fact, the nuanced work was accomplished by the

copy editor—who almost never gets credit.

One last thing about the copy editor’s role: Reading so many

manuscripts requires that the copy editor fact-check. While

this job should not be left entirely to the copy editor, it

is good to know that someone is watching your back.

(Note: See Section Three to read “What an Editor Does.”)

Avoiding Clichés

When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims,

one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms,

like cuttlefish squirting out ink. —George Orwell

It is embarrassing the way that designers prostrate them-

selves—and the English language—especially in their

promotional material, describing in florid words what they

The copy editor is more than a mechanic, responsible for tuning

under the hood: He is the guarian of the written word.

(Ray)

(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers

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section 1

the three r’s : reading, writing, and research

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37

do as though their designs alone aren’t enough to tell the

story. It may be true that some clients (or prospective clients)

don’t have a good grasp of what design is, but most have eyes

and can intuit. During the nascent period of graphic design

(somewhere around the mid-1920s), all that a commercial artist

advertising in one of the many promotional annuals had to

say was, “Jeanne Doe, calligraphy, layout, illustration,” and

the point was made (in part because the services were being

bought by agencies or art directors, not directly by clients).

Today, with nondesign clients being more active in the hiring

process, something called “design philosophy” has become the

basis of a new patois. Philosophy is not pejorative. But when

it turns to sophistry, beware!

For at least the past decade, designers have tried to position

themselves as legitimate professionals. Inherent in this quest

is an attempt to squelch the myth that visual people are

ostensibly illiterate. Where the myth started is anyone’s guess.

After all, the first, what one might call literate, people—those

who developed the earliest codified languages—were image

makers. The first alphabets were composed of images. Early

scripture was illuminated by scribes who made pictures as well

as words—the first typefaces were designed by artists. The

first books were designed by artist/writers. So, traditionally,

designers have been a very literate people. Then, where and

when did the distinction begin? Maybe it came with the onset

of commercial printing, when publicity was churned out, not

designed—when its makers began to provide a service, not

art. Not all commercial printers or commercial artists were

enemies of the word, yet the impact of those who were has had

a detrimental effect, ultimately leading in the early twentieth

century to the schism between copywriters and designers.

During the 1950s these distinctions in the advertising world

started to blur, but graphic designers were still suffering from

the effects of negative stereotypes. Ever since graphic designers

began adding terms such as marketing and communications to their

billheads, the accepted notion that having a codified philosophy

would undo those negative stereotypes has resulted in design

firms issuing promotional materials replete with weighty (and

sometimes dramatic) mission statements that read like either

legal briefs or epic poems, like this one:

Communications: Visual plays leading to emotional involvement.

Communications: Creativity at levels that make the experience.

Communications: Materials that desire to be collected for keeps.

Communications: Turn the target. Flip the crowd.

Communications: Translate the message into action to your advantage.

Communications: Manage the trains of thought and the rest will

come to you for yours.

Without any disrespect intended, is what you just read

substance or hype? Did it describe or confuse? Think about the

selling (flap or ad) copy on a book or the liner notes on a record.

In both cases the best of these titillate, if not illuminate. What

does this copy tell us? Visual plays? It is a rather strained meta-

phor. Emotional involvement? It is a lot to hope for from a piece

of paper. Collected for keeps? Hold on! Even the best publicity

has a limited shelf life. Manage the trains of thought? Hey, did

anyone copy-read this?

If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs

cannot be carried on to success. —Confucius

As hyperbolic as it is, the “visual plays” copy is at least

somewhat creative compared with the conventional fare. In-

deed, with few welcome exceptions when designers, especially

firms, extol their own virtues, the results are dry, platitudinous,

and repetitive, with buzzwords reminiscent of police accounts

like the ones one hears uttered on the TV news by rookie cops:

“The perp, a Caucasian female, was apprehended and subdued

by two pursuing, uniformed officers, while proceeding to gain

unlawful access to the abode of the victim . . . .”

To a teacher of languages there comes a time when the world is but

a place of many words and man appears a mere talking animal not

more wonderful than a parrot. —Joseph Conrad

Like cadets parroting the phrases in Jargon 101 at any police

academy, most designers learn—Lord knows from where—

that to gain respect in the outside world it is imperative to

use officious language they would never apply in everyday

part tWo : WrItIng

(Ray)

(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers

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