Research Paper: ‘Aspects of Editing’ by Professor (Dr) Shibu Simon

[ELTWeekly Volume 6, Issue 14 | May 26, 2014 | ISSN 0975-3036]

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Introduction

At the height of the Communicative Approach to language teaching in the late Eighties and in the early Nineties, it had become fashionable to speak derisively of translation, and also to some extent of editing, for its association with the ‘old-fashioned’ Grammar Translation Method¹ (Duff 160). It was largely felt that translation and editing were drab academic exercises with no use for interactive and communicative use of language in classrooms and that they were more or less professional or commercial in their application.  However, of late there has been a revival of interest in translation and editing studies and in their adaptability and suitability for language classrooms to help learners learn the language rather than learn ‘about’ the language. Štulajterova points to this new trend (1),

Until recently, translation was out of favour with the language teaching community [. . . .] The reason why translation is, even today, ignored by many teachers as an effective language learning activity is mainly because teachers often feel that translation involves no oral interaction and therefore is not a communicative activity, and that it is not suited to the general needs of the language learner. Moreover, many of them consider use of the mother tongue in foreign language teaching undesirable, or feel that translation is time-consuming, boring and irrelevant. This does not have to be the case.

What Štulajterova speaks about translation is also true of editing. Like translation, editing too was misunderstood, but editing can be effectively used in different teaching contexts ranging from instruction to evaluation and to improve all the four language skills including oral skills if used resourcefully by a teacher. Editing is one of a number of ways in which learners can be prompted to learn to use language communicatively without resorting to their mother tongue. Of all the skills a learner acquires in an English classroom, the skill of editing is of more practical use to him in the study of other subjects, especially in the writing assignments.

This article can be described as an appeal to practising English teachers for reconsideration of their attitude to using editing as a tool in teaching English to students for whom it is either their second language or foreign language. As such, the arguments hold good for teaching of all languages, and not necessarily English, but illustrations are exclusively from English language. It also examines editing in relation to translation and points out how editing holds promise for development as an autonomous discipline in language studies.

Editing and Translation

Editing has much in common with translation. Like translation, editing too is of common use in every man’s life. It may range from editing one’s mailing address informally to formally editing a dissertation written by a student as part of its mandatory requirements for the award of a degree.

Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English (fifth edition) defines edit (v) as:

1(a) to prepare a piece of writing, often another person’s, for publication, e.g., by correcting it, commenting on it, or removing parts of it, (b) to prepare a film, tape, radio or television programme, or book by arranging separate items or parts in a suitable sequence, 2. to be responsible for planning, directing and publishing a newspaper, magazine etc.

This definition shows that editing, like translation, is also a broad concept ranging from editing a text to editing a film, a tape, a radio programme, a television programme to even editing the data for computer processing.

Editing also involves a ‘process’ and a ‘product’: an editor undertakes editing a document as a process comprising its formatting, additions, deletions, substitutions and proper sequencing resulting in a finished product for its target audience which is an edition.

However, unlike translation, editing does not by definition involve two languages. The language of the source text and the language of the target text are outside its ambit. But for all practical purposes, it does involve two versions of the same language – the source version which is unedited and the target version which is edited and thus properly corrected, commented, sequenced and arranged for presentation or viewing. Both the source text and the target text are in the same language but there is a definite movement within the same language from its raw, unedited version to a corrected, edited version. If editing does not involve this change in versions (register/dialect), there is no reason why editing should be undertaken at all in the first place. This explains why the dictionary definition of editing involves frequent use of verbs denoting change: preparing, correcting, commenting, removing, arranging, sequencing etc.

In the Unedited Version 1(given below), the passage describes the unexpected entry of Charlie Chaplin into the world of show-business. Syntactically and lexically, its register is neither very formal nor very informal. It uses consistently a neutral register, midway between formality and informality, where expressions like  ‘shower of money’ and ‘pouring onto the stage’ exist along with ‘leave the stage’ and ‘performance’. In its edited version (Edited Version 1), the editing focussed exclusively on correcting the grammar and substituted ‘at the age five’ (with more grammatical ‘at the age of five’ ), ‘because’ (with a more appropriate adverbial showing time ‘when’), ‘the performance’ (with the indefinite ‘a performance’), ‘stopped the song’ (with the more idiomatic ‘stopped singing’), and ‘impressive career’ (with ‘amazing career’ – a more appropriate adjective in the overall context). Further, the apposite phrase ‘a music hall performer’ (in apposition to ‘his mother’) is set off with comma not to obstruct the flow of reading, it being additional information in the context. The phrase ‘halfway through the song’ is also similarly set off with comma to indicate pause while reading.

Unedited Version 1

Charlie Chaplin entered show business unexpectedly at the age five because his mother a music hall performer, lost her voice during the performance and had to leave the stage. Charlie went on and sang a well-known song. Halfway through the song a shower of money poured onto the stage. Charlie stopped the song and told the audience he would pick up the money first and then finish the song. The audience laughed. This was the first of millions of laughs in Charlie Chaplin’s impressive career．

Edited Version 1

Charlie Chaplin entered show business unexpectedly at the age of five when his mother, a music hall performer, lost her voice during a performance and had to leave the stage. Charlie went on and sang a well-known song. Halfway through the song, a shower of money poured onto the stage. Charlie stopped singing and told the audience he would pick up the money first and then finish the song. The audience laughed. This was the first of millions of laughs in Charlie Chaplin’s amazing career．

However, in the second example of Unedited Version 2, the passage is devoid of any grammatical mistakes. But the whole passage is written in a very informal register making use of short forms, abbreviations, contracted forms, short sentences, personal pronouns, and active voice. However, the last sentence stands out as odd due to its striking formal tone. In the edited version (Edited Version 2), the sentence is recast into informal register (‘So, please let me know if you can make it a.s.a.p.’) to make it in agreement with the rest of the passage.

Unedited Version 2

Thanks for your letter. I got it 14th Sep. I’ve sent a copy to comp. H.Q. along with a memo re. your financial situation. I’ve set a meeting for 3rd Oct. at 11am to talk about another bank loan. Therefore, I may please be informed of your availability for this meeting at the earliest opportunity.

Edited Version 2

Thanks for your letter. I got it 14th Sep. I’ve sent a copy to comp. H.Q. along with a memo re. your financial situation. I’ve set a meeting for 3rd Oct. at 11am to talk about another bank loan. So, please let me know if you can make it a.s.a.p.

Editing involves two equivalent messages in one and the same code. In this sense, editing comes closer to what Roman Jakobson (1959,2000) calls ‘intralingual translation’ (which is translation within the same language involving rewording or paraphrase) than to ‘interlingual translation’ (which is translation from one language to another) or ‘intersemiotic translation’ (which is translation of the verbal sign by a non verbal sign like music or image). Whereas out of these three varieties, only interlingual translation is deemed ‘translation proper’ by Jakobson, editing is always characterised by its intralingual aspect. That is, editing involves two versions (dialects or registers) of the same language but never two different languages.

Today, like in translation, the focus of editing has also broadened far beyond the mere replacement of source text language items with their target text equivalents that are considered more suited to the target audience. It now involves all types of linguistic, political, cultural, social and ideological phenomena around editing.

Issues in Editing Studies

1. What shall be the nature of equivalence between the linguistic items in source text and in the edited text? Should the relationship of similarity between them strong or weak? What shall be the unit of editing? Should the editor be faithful to the source text segment by segment or is he free to view the text as a whole and attempt free editing? Should the edited text create substantially the same effect on the reader as its source text? Should this ‘simulation of effect’ be considered an editing aim?
2. Can there be a notion of editability? Is every text editable? If editable, can there be a degree of editability? Is it possible to examine the extent to which a given source text is editable?
3. Can there be pure editing studies² and applied editing studies³ ?
4. Are general laws of editing like ‘law of growing standardisation’⁴ and ‘law of interference’⁵ feasible?
5. Does the edited text in general display typical characteristics known as ‘universals of editing’⁶?

The ‘strong form’ of this hypothesis is that these are elements that always occur in editing; the ‘weak form’ is that these are tendencies that often occur. If investigated using larger corpora (electronic database of texts), instead of small-scale studies, it may be possible to arrive at feasible conclusions.

1. Is editing inter-disciplinary now? Are its cultural and ideological features as prominent as linguistic?

Areas of Potential Research

Other potential areas for research in the field of editing are suggested below:

1. Text analysis and editing
2. Assessment of editing quality
3. Editing of literary and other genres
4. Editing and technology
5. Editing history
6. Editing ethics
7. Editing terminology and glossaries
8. Editing process
9. Editor Training
10. Characteristics of editing profession

Conclusion

Editing can be a part of the main writing activity or the post-writing sequence as a form of feedback from the class to the student editor or the instructor. There can be several types of editing exercises that can be effectively used at any level of second/foreign language teaching. Successfully undertaking an editing exercise gives learners a sound knowledge of grammar, aspects of different genres of writing, features of style, and nuances of formatting. Without a sound knowledge of the grammatical basis of the language, it can be argued that the learner is in possession of nothing more than a selection of communicative phrases which are perfectly adequate for basic communication but which will be found wanting when the learner is required to perform any kind of sophisticated linguistic task at the advanced level⁷.

Notes

¹ If we examine the principal features of Grammar Translation, however, we will see that not only has it not disappeared but that many of its characteristics have been central to language teaching throughout the ages and are still valid today. It can even be argued that the Grammar Translation method has over the years had a remarkable success. Millions of people have successfully learnt foreign languages to a high degree of proficiency and, in numerous cases, without any contact whatsoever with native speakers of the language, as was the case in India, for example.

² Pure editing studies can be defined as encompassing descriptive studies of existing edited texts and editing theories.

³ Applied editing studies can be thought of as involving editor training, editing aids and editing criticism.

⁴ The ‘law of growing standardisation’ may explain why the edited texts generally display less linguistic variation than source texts.

⁵ The ‘law of interference’ can account for the fact that the lexical and syntactic patterns of the source text often tend to be copied, creating unusual patterns in the edited text.

⁶ Universals of editing may point to the possibility ofencountering typical characteristics of edited language such as greater cohesion, greater explication (with reduced ambiguity) and the edited text being normally longer than its source version.

⁷ The author acknowledges his indebtedness to the ideas expressed in the book Translation: An Advanced Resource Book by B. Hatim and J. Munday and to Nisha S. Simon and Sherin S. Simon for their critical and very helpful feedback to the draft copy of the article.

References

Bell, R. T. Translation and Translating. London: Longman, 1995.

Byrd, David R. “Practical Tips for Implementing Peer Editing Tasks in the Foreign Language

Classroom.” Foreign Language Annals 36.3 (2003): 434–441.

Duff, A. Translation. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1994.

Jakobson, R. “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation”. In R. Brower, Ed. 1959.

– – -. “On Translation.” Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 2000. 232-39.

Newmark, P. A. Textbook of Translation. London: Prentice Hall International, 1989.

Štulajterova, Alena. “The Place of Translation in English Language Teaching.” Humanising Language Teaching 10.6 (2008): 1-2.