I've been studying Armand's article "How
To Soothe and Impress Your Editor" and
hope to find a way to incorporate one
suggestion in
particular. I usually write this newsletter
up until the moment I press send which
leaves me little or no time to follow
Armand's advice:
Age and Polish. Penultimately,
I recommend letting your composition lie
fallow for a month or two. Then look it over
one last time. If it still appears in your
considered judgement the "Gettysburg Address"
redivivus, send it off posthaste (no hyphen).
Editors desperately need it. But if you have
to explain your meaning even to some
sympathetic trial reader (your office mate,
your wife or husband, your paramour, or
significant other [ugh]) or possibly to
yourself, chances are that a part of what you
are trying to express is still in your head,
not on paper.
You won't be around to help the editor
interpret a text that must sell itself. The
month or so of cooling-off period usually
works wonders. Now you will be reading your
article more as a stranger than author. You
will doubtless find it audibly begging for
revisions, and not just for the sake of clarity.
Surely it will require more polish,
elegance, charm, irony -- a little something
you aimed at and missed. Many a witticism,
many a line of Attic brilliance needs fine
sandpapering a few weeks after parturition
(and many a metaphor, like this one, suffers
from miscegenation). In any event, never
mail off a ms. about which you feel the
slightest reservation or for which you have
to apologize. If you don't believe in it 100
percent, no editor will. You are insulting
both yourself and him (her, the editorial
board, someday maybe an optical scanner). We
all write poorly enough; don't fail to give
yourself every possible advantage.
Photo: Wired
Science