Founder's Story

I love reading. I love math. I love teaching. I love to ideate. And I’m blessed by a series of serendipities. A bachelor’s degree to pharma sales to the master’s degree to a bit of teaching to master of philosophy to editing – what do you call it?

I wasn’t even sure whether editing was going to be my career. The first title I edited was on Keats and Romantic Celticism, and the author was furious about my editing. (I have written about it elsewhere). Should I be an editor?

While the decision was not yet made, I worked on the second edition of another book. The author wrote back saying, “No one has ever read my book so thoroughly since the first edition. Can you thank the copyeditor for me?” And I was part of some of the challenging work that the editorial team came across, each title slowly reinforcing my belief that I can be a good editor.

It had been 15 years in editing taking on various roles, with the last full-time job as the senior copyediting manager, in the journey managing many reputable international publishers. I loved every bit of those 15 years.

Well, almost!

Most of the time I loved what I was doing. Sometimes not. The cheese in front of me was not what I liked or wanted. But that’s a corporate cheese, and I had to run for it. And I know there are cheese stations that offer delicious cheese, but either it is not the goal or someone else is running for it. I decided I want to quit my day job.

Fear is one thing that will stop the mightiest from trying, let alone winning. I spoke to my wife, family, and best friends. While playing devil’s advocate, almost all encouraged me to be on my own. They pointed out some of my weaknesses that can be an impediment to success. And Indian Copyeditors Forum (ICF) has been a great motivation behind the decision. The few occasions I spoke to Vivek Kumar, founder of the ICF gave insights and encouragement. I’m glad to see that the community is growing and helping each other a lot.

Finally, the fifth of October twenty-eighteen turned out to be my last day in my day job.

I had been writing on Editor’s Essentials, my blog since 2008. It became a web site and Editor’s Essentials was born. Editor’s Essentials will focus on the copyediting training needs of editors and editorial teams. It will combine my love for reading, math, teaching, and ideation.

PS: I have followed Language Log (LL) closely for a while. During the 2016 US presidential elections, many of the posts in LL were about the overuse of personal pronouns by one candidate than the other. I am normally cautious about this overuse. But if you think this piece used a high number of personal pronouns, I would like to paraphrase what Melchizedek said in The Alchemist: “[Even the] old king [of Salem] sometimes has to take some pride in himself.” I’m after all a simple mortal.

MS Word: Proofing language vs preferred language

If proofing language is the language with which the writer communicates with her reader, the preferred language is the language with which MS Office applications, such as Word or Excel, communicate with their users. This video explains the difference between these two choices.

Find and replace like a pro: Use wild cards

Wildcards are a pro-level feature in MS Word. With wildcards, you move away from finding words to finding patterns, thus improving efficiency.

Style manuals, house styles and style sheets

Copy editors rely on three resources for their day-to-day editing: house styles, style manuals, and style sheets. What are they and how do they compare with each other? This playlist provides answers to these questions.

In conversation with Yateendra

Murugaraj Shanmugam interviewed veteran editor Yateendra Joshi for the Sunday webinars organized by the Indian Copyeditors Forum. In this video, Yateen, as he is fondly called, shares his experience and how he viewed MS Word beyond being a writing platform. 

Setting the proofing language

One of the first tasks that a copy editor performs is running spell check. The effectiveness of the spell-check process depends on choosing the proofing language. As copy editors invariably work with track changes, this video explains the correct way to set up the proofing language without creating unwarranted side effects.

In conversation with Dr. Venkat

In another interview for the Indian Copyeditors Forum, Murugaraj interviewed Dr. Venkat, a veteran editor and the founder of The Art of Copyediting.

Videos on the ICF channel