My thoughts on editing once confused it with revision. Finish your work, look it over carefully, and make corrections where applicable. It was a very set pattern, one I used again and again. Once habits are formed they are hard to break, especially if one doesn’t recognize that they are indeed a habit. Looking through some of my old writing, fiction or academic or otherwise, the similar patterns emerge. For a long time I’d simply been churning out the same basic form.
Working with translation broke some of those habits. When I first began my approach to the field, translating short articles for a website that never launched, I started to realize just how much the small bits matter. No two languages perfectly mirror one another so no translation is ever literal. You have to make a choice word-by-word and sentence-by-sentence. Because of that, your translation won’t be like anyone else’s translation either. In making your own choices on how to translate a piece you are creating your own version of a work. According to the reading for this post, “On the Conjunction of Editing and Composition” by Peter Gizzi from Paper Dreams, editing involves much of the same. It’s similar to translation in that the choices that are made when “Editing, like writing, is fundamentally about composing a world, (pg. 231).” What we like to read shapes what we write, thus also shaping how we edit writing. The choices made during the editing process make-up the final product one wishes everyone else to see which will then move on to shape those readers' choices in how they approach their writing or editing. Working with translation pushed me out of my comfort zone. Editing has further widened my scope. Though I’m enjoying my time working on the Toyon, especially within my given role, it is that particular role I want to later explore. Literary translation is a job that helps a text gain a greater readership and introduces readers that were not able to read a particular text before to the exploration of a different viewpoint. Becoming certified in translation is a short-term goal I’ll be working towards. The Reading For This Post: **Gizzi, Peter."On the Conjunction of Editing and Composition." Paper Dreams. Madison, NJ: Atticus Books, 2013. 229-235. Print.
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About These Blog PostsWhile we work on the Toyon we must also blog about it. Sometimes it's through simple updates and sometimes we will be given specific assignments that we must answer. Archives
December 2016
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