- I wrote, "But all was not well on the borders." Copyeditor corrected to, "But not all was well on the borders." Nope, I like mine better. #
- I wrote "They knew little of Islam but too much of the rigid Hinduism of the Sena." Copyeditor corrected to… #
- "They knew little about Islam but too much about the rigid Hinduism of the Sena." And once again nope. Mine flows better. #
- I wrote, "To reduce the power of the church courts back within bounds, Henry needed a sympathetic archbishop." Copyeditor corrected to… #
- "To turn the power of the church courts to former bounds, Henry needed…" OK, I don't even need to finish that one, do I?? #
- You know, I sense that the copyeditor has begun to feel cranky. And we're only on p. 143 of 914… #
- Took a break from edits to feed sheep in the dusk. Glow-worms salted all through the pasture: chips of luminescence in dark grass. #
- Is it OK to say that tensions "escalate"? Wondering why copyeditor changed it to "tensions mounted." #copyedits #
- OK, I am having trouble with the phrase "hove to." Can I say that a fleet "hove to on the horizon"? Or do I need to say "heaved to"? #
- Richard I sent his entrails to be buried at Limoges. Does that really contradict statement that his body was buried at his father's feet? #
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Is it OK to say that tensions “escalate”? Wondering why copyeditor changed it to “tensions mounted.” #copyedits #
I prefer “escalate”! 🙂
I think, perhaps, heave and hove are like who and whom. To “heave to” and to “be hove to” I think are correct. If so, then a fleet does not itself “hove to” but is “hoved to” by those doing the heaving. Thus, “was hove to on the horizon” might be right.
However, I don’t know much about either sailing or grammar.
Re “all was not well†vs. “not all was wellâ€: Once again, the well-respected Copyeditor’s Handbook by Amy Einsohn rules in your favor:
“In general, positively worded statements are easier for readers to understand correctly than are negatively worded statements. … But accentuating the positive doesn’t require eliminating all clusters of negatives. For example, if an author labels an issue ‘not unimportant,’ a copyeditor should not substitute ‘important.’ There is more than a shade of difference between the two expressions.†(pp. 397–98)
Check out the Wikipedia article on hove to, interesting.
Who gets to decide in the end? You or the copy editor?
Yeah, I like your own versions each time.
Oh, my goodness, Susan! Your version is so much more elegant in each case. You must hold the line!