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sources and citation and indexes
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From: Nancy Thalia Reynolds <ntreynolds_at_comcast.net>
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:03:35 +0000 (UTC)
I read with interest and agreed with Marc and Debbie's comments and suggest ions. For authors who are not already scholars in some field that has requi red them to learn what we now think of as editorial skills--what, when, and how to cite--their style guide will almost certainly going to be whatever В they were taught in high school, along with (for some) the 5 paragrap h essay. A quick cram of the MLA style guide too, no doubt.
Those of us who write nonfiction for adults can certainly count on some mea sure of editorial budget and expertise, along with one's own post-secondary academic studies, to fall back on here.
I wonder how many writers of nonfiction have PhDs or even MAs of any kind t hat would have required them to make a good job of citation. I don't claim to know; I'm just wondering. The money is so limited in writing nonfiction (and not just for kids) that usually the author needs additional motivation or a trust fund in order to be able to afford to do it at all. The writer whose hope for a tenure track job in academe depends on being published doe s have such motivation. So does the ideologue with an axe to grind, politic al or otherwise. Others of us may be blessed with an understanding spouse o r employer.
Many writers, if not most, write nonfiction books for kids in series and ch urn them out quickly in order to maximize the minimal income. I suspect mos t are write-for-hire contracts in which the author will receive no addition al income, regardless of sales or lack of them, from royalties.
Meanwhile, fact checking for publishers is not a growthВ field of emplo yment. I've been fortunate enough to have dedicated editors with the time a nd experience to query anything ambiguous or contradictory. I've almost nev er had an editor query my sources, however. And unlike academic writing, ma ny general interest nonfiction books are not sent to readers with expertise in the field, a practice that may not cost much in dollars, but that takes a lot of time.
So what is an author to do? I worked for 20 years as a freelance editor to supplement my writing income and I've needed and called on that experience for every book. Even so, I invariably made some mistakes, most of which wer e spotted by editors, but not all.
When I began writing,В publishers provided professional indexers to mak e an index for the book. The author's responsibilityВ was confined to c hecking the index for accuracy. In recent years, many publishers have done away with that expense, telling their authors that they can either prepare the index themselves, or pay whomever the publisher hiresВ to provide t he index.
Indexing is a profession and one that requires training and probably a gift for the job, as well. That is why indexers command much more money than ed itors do (and why publishers have chosen indexers to eliminate). Any author can prepare an index, just as anyone who has mastered the alphabet and Eng lish language and usage can write a book.
ForВ my last book, I prepared the index myself, a very difficult and po litically resonant task, as my book was aboutВ how YA literature--ficti on and nonfiction--treats mixed heritage (race, ethnicity, religion, adopti on). I found the task very hard and also fascinating. I learned a lot about my own biases and about our language's biases and ambiguities. With indexe s, we prioritize concepts, build them into hierarchies of significance. Our choices reflect our values for the material we work with.
For anyoneВ interested in what an index really, I suggestВ Nancy Mu lvany's marvelous INDEXING BOOKS. She also write the CMS chapter on indexin g.
So to get back to our topic if you're still with me, I feel no discussion o f nonfiction sourcing and citation, to which I add indexing, is complete wi thout a look at the practicalities. If it is the author's ethical responsib ility to provide such sourcing, how is she to do it if she lacks the educat ion, time, and income to do so?
My hunch is that the most-read nonfiction for kids is series literature, of ten organized by topic (or "hot topic"). These generally provide brief sour cing, on about the same level as an article in a news magazine. Series that present different views as part of the format, i.e. essays from partisans on both sides of a controversial issue, often do a good job here. But other s skate over issues and provide at best flimsy sourcing.
What I'd like to know is this: how can we expect that to change when nearly every authorial incentive pushes in the direction of superficiality?
Nancy Thalia Reynolds,
MIXED HERITAGE IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE (Scarecrow Press, 2009)
Received on Mon 18 Oct 2010 04:03:35 PM CDT
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:03:35 +0000 (UTC)
I read with interest and agreed with Marc and Debbie's comments and suggest ions. For authors who are not already scholars in some field that has requi red them to learn what we now think of as editorial skills--what, when, and how to cite--their style guide will almost certainly going to be whatever В they were taught in high school, along with (for some) the 5 paragrap h essay. A quick cram of the MLA style guide too, no doubt.
Those of us who write nonfiction for adults can certainly count on some mea sure of editorial budget and expertise, along with one's own post-secondary academic studies, to fall back on here.
I wonder how many writers of nonfiction have PhDs or even MAs of any kind t hat would have required them to make a good job of citation. I don't claim to know; I'm just wondering. The money is so limited in writing nonfiction (and not just for kids) that usually the author needs additional motivation or a trust fund in order to be able to afford to do it at all. The writer whose hope for a tenure track job in academe depends on being published doe s have such motivation. So does the ideologue with an axe to grind, politic al or otherwise. Others of us may be blessed with an understanding spouse o r employer.
Many writers, if not most, write nonfiction books for kids in series and ch urn them out quickly in order to maximize the minimal income. I suspect mos t are write-for-hire contracts in which the author will receive no addition al income, regardless of sales or lack of them, from royalties.
Meanwhile, fact checking for publishers is not a growthВ field of emplo yment. I've been fortunate enough to have dedicated editors with the time a nd experience to query anything ambiguous or contradictory. I've almost nev er had an editor query my sources, however. And unlike academic writing, ma ny general interest nonfiction books are not sent to readers with expertise in the field, a practice that may not cost much in dollars, but that takes a lot of time.
So what is an author to do? I worked for 20 years as a freelance editor to supplement my writing income and I've needed and called on that experience for every book. Even so, I invariably made some mistakes, most of which wer e spotted by editors, but not all.
When I began writing,В publishers provided professional indexers to mak e an index for the book. The author's responsibilityВ was confined to c hecking the index for accuracy. In recent years, many publishers have done away with that expense, telling their authors that they can either prepare the index themselves, or pay whomever the publisher hiresВ to provide t he index.
Indexing is a profession and one that requires training and probably a gift for the job, as well. That is why indexers command much more money than ed itors do (and why publishers have chosen indexers to eliminate). Any author can prepare an index, just as anyone who has mastered the alphabet and Eng lish language and usage can write a book.
ForВ my last book, I prepared the index myself, a very difficult and po litically resonant task, as my book was aboutВ how YA literature--ficti on and nonfiction--treats mixed heritage (race, ethnicity, religion, adopti on). I found the task very hard and also fascinating. I learned a lot about my own biases and about our language's biases and ambiguities. With indexe s, we prioritize concepts, build them into hierarchies of significance. Our choices reflect our values for the material we work with.
For anyoneВ interested in what an index really, I suggestВ Nancy Mu lvany's marvelous INDEXING BOOKS. She also write the CMS chapter on indexin g.
So to get back to our topic if you're still with me, I feel no discussion o f nonfiction sourcing and citation, to which I add indexing, is complete wi thout a look at the practicalities. If it is the author's ethical responsib ility to provide such sourcing, how is she to do it if she lacks the educat ion, time, and income to do so?
My hunch is that the most-read nonfiction for kids is series literature, of ten organized by topic (or "hot topic"). These generally provide brief sour cing, on about the same level as an article in a news magazine. Series that present different views as part of the format, i.e. essays from partisans on both sides of a controversial issue, often do a good job here. But other s skate over issues and provide at best flimsy sourcing.
What I'd like to know is this: how can we expect that to change when nearly every authorial incentive pushes in the direction of superficiality?
Nancy Thalia Reynolds,
MIXED HERITAGE IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE (Scarecrow Press, 2009)
Received on Mon 18 Oct 2010 04:03:35 PM CDT
