By Ann Patty
I was delighted to see the New York Times article last week about Johnny Temple’s success with Go the F*ck to Sleep. In this era of groupthink at the large publishers, it’s cause for celebration when a small house such as Akashic Books not only succeeds with a bold bet, but even manages to hang on to the property when the corporate sharks circle. Alas, my delight turned to consternation when I read the verse quoted in the article.
The cats nestle close to their kittens,
The lambs have laid down with the sheep.
You’re cozy and warm in your bed, my dear.
Please go the ____ to sleep.
Even my Word program, as I typed the above, knows that the second line should read “The lambs have lain down with the sheep.” Such a mistake, with a word whose meter and rhyme is incidental in the line, in poetry!
Ann Patty
In my many years as an editor, the most frequent lesson I’ve had to impart to writers — from fledglings to award winners to mega-bestsellers — is about the difference between the transitive verb lay, laid, laid and the intransitive verb lie, lay, lain. Some authors get it; some never do, even after eight or nine books. That’s why there are editors and copy editors and proofreaders, right?
Where was the editor on Go the F*ck to Sleep? Where was the copy editor, the proofreader? How did that laid slip by them? Isn’t it their job to protect the writer from such an embarrassing mistake?
Lest you think it’s the small publisher that may be skimping on careful copyediting, I recently encountered equally egregious blunders in a major title from a large, prestigious publisher. The bestselling writer is highly regarded, much awarded, and taught in English and writing departments at universities. The editor is seasoned, smart, and serious. Yet my enjoyment of the book was ruined by the many sentences that didn’t scan, violated proper usage, and were just plain bad and ugly by any standard. How did these get by the editor, the copy editor, and the proofreader?
I almost phoned that writer’s agent to suggest that writers, when they are “important,” not to mention well compensated, might spend an extra bit of money to hire someone to read the manuscript in galleys to make sure such bad sentences aren’t left for posterity. We know most editors no longer have time to edit; and now, it seems, copy editors don’t copyedit, proofreaders don’t proofread.
Even charter members of the grammar police misspeak from time to time. But there’s no excuse for such slips to appear in print. Isn’t that why the publishing process takes so long, because the words are read by many sets of eyes? Isn’t this one of the important services publishers are supposed to supply?
Students in MFA programs I visit are upset, even outraged, when I tell them that when I was an editor at Harcourt, I stopped reading a manuscript that contained a grammatical error on the first page. How could I take seriously a writer who hadn’t taken the time to learn the tools of her trade? Once, on a panel of editors, only minutes after I’d delivered some version of the above rant, a young editor used the phrase “between her and I.” Isn’t it imperative for editors to know the difference between the nominative case and the objective case?
I know the blame can be laid partly on the instantaneous nature of electronic communications, partly on the defunding of education (especially foreign language classes) in this country, and partly on the ever-increasing workloads of in-house editors. Nevertheless, the written word, when printed and bound, must be held to the highest standards. Editors, copy editors, and proofreaders, please clean up your act, do your job, and learn the f**king rules!
SURVEY: Has Digitization Increased Errors in Books?
Ann Patty worked in trade publishing for over thirty years, as Founder and Publisher of Poseidon Press, Editorial Director at Crown Books, an Executive Editor at Harcourt Inc. She is now a freelance editor, studying Latin in her spare time. You can find her online at www.annpatty.com.
69 Comments
Brava, Ann! This confusion between the verbs lay and lie is, alas, ubiquitous; it’s found in the most extraordinary places. I have been startled to find it in wonderful books without any other infelicity. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if some copy-editor “corrected” the author’s originally correct usage!
It may be a common mistake, but that doesn’t make it any less off-putting. A writer who makes this error risks losing credibility in my eyes. It’s unfortunate, because of course good writing isn’t simply a question of good grammar. Some excellent writers may have a shaky grasp of the subtleties, and other writers may have perfect grammar and no gift. But this is quite a serious mistake in the use of English, not a triviality.
Yes, language changes, we all know that. However, there is still a notion of what is correct at our given moment in time. And it’s a writer’s business, and a copyeditor’s business as well, to know what that standard is.
Using lay/lie wrongly still makes the writer appear uneducated; this is sad, even unfair, but true. If “lain” sounds archaic–and I can see it might–well, then, one should recast the whole line.
Grammar matters because it shows mastery of one’s raw material. A carpenter needs to know how to handle wood, a sculptor needs to know how to cut marble, a writer needs to know how the language is put together.
Yes, there are probably some typos above, and perhaps I’ve made a mistake in my use of dashes. Regrettable, but not on a par with lay/lie errors, which come from a misunderstanding of the meaning and usage of each verb.
I’m sorry if this has been mentioned before but: is this satire?
If not, it certainly could be. It definitely brought a tear to my eye…
Such errors are the inevitable result when Accounting and Marketing hold a banquet and Grammar is not invited.
I can cope with a lot of the grammatical slips – mainly because we weren’t taught English grammar at school and so I can’t be certain if the problem lies (lays?) with me or the publication. Poor spelling and punctuation can make me snarl, but bad proof reading makes me roar!
It’s good to have people like Ann to find and correct mistakes in writers’ work. But her article is a good example why she is an editor and not a writer.
Personally I don’t care about the finer points of “lay, laid, lain” but that’s to be expected from an old aircraft engineer like me who doesn’t know , or indeed care, if the comma goes inside or outside the parentheses (paraphrasing Jonathan’s comment,), and if asked to discuss the pros and cons of transitives and intransitives, whatever the hell they are, would promptly have a nervous breakdown and spend the rest of my life gibbering in a corner.
Nevertheless I was quite perturbed when I read Seth Marlin’s comment about Ms. Patty being a “staid old bat in a high rise” as this description transcends the object and tone of this column. No matter what Ms. Patty’s opinions are, be they right or wrong, if indeed there is a set wright or rong in this instance, she does not deserve this sort of comment which says more about Seth Marlin than it does about Ms. Patty.
Strong opinions deserve strong discussion, not strong vituperation.
Rather than add my comments about Ms. Patty’s article I think I’ll let the matter lie.
Or should that be lay?
This is a very good article.
I have a mother who was born in another country and came to the United States in her early 20s. There have been so many times I would hear her get harassed for her grammar and pronunciation. Yet, these very same people, people who have lived in the U.S. their entire lives, cannot speak proper English themselves.
I think the issue is that Americans just do not have any pride and do not care anymore! Many of them think they are better than those of other countries, yet anyone can tell you that cars and electronics made in other countries are made better and last longer.
I no longer pick up a newspaper because I become so annoyed articles riddled with errors.
The only positive about this whole thing is that it keeps me in my editing job and I’m getting paid to fix the problems.
I want -if possible- to commission Ann Patty an editorial job. Could somebody please forward me her e-mail?
Sorry Ann, can’t agree with your there ,’Of course language evolves, neologisms are necessary and add color and nuance; the rules of grammar, however, are set in stone, are they not?’
Take superlatives, personally, I love them, Shakespearean and King James, ‘This was the most unkindest cut of all.’ In a hundred years the English language will be the ‘Most changest of them all.’
Thank you Ann Patty for shedding light on the hurdles and stumbling blocks that readers have to dodge nowadays when they read anything, be it a magazine article or a novel.
Just as they recall lemon cars, car seats for children, and tainted foods, I make a proposal that they recall ‘all’ published matter with grammatical errors. It will also help the editors, copy editors, and proofreaders if they look upon themselves as surgeons of grammar. Oops! Another one bites the dust. Then maybe they will be able to see the words, the sentences, and the paragraphs bleed, from their inattentiveness, I cringe.
There are plenty of errors in books that must have had an editor and proof reader because they are being produced by well-known publishers. The incorrect use of “continue on” is the mistake I hear most often. I listen to books on disc constantly and no body seems to point out that it’s considered redundant.
“Yay” for this post. I don’t feel so alone anymore in my belief that good writing and good editing go hand in hand. Will you marry me? Or, at least, let’s do lunch sometime.
English is the most F**ked up language ever. No grammatical errors are okay, and no grammatical errors are bad, it all depends upon how you grew up reading. There is no rules to English. If I showed a paragraph of Stephen King’s novel to 10 editors, without telling them this is his work, they would all find some mistake. There can never been a perfectly written paper, book or article.
I’m certainly not an English Professor, I’m also not a teacher but, I am an avid reader. My biggest pet peeve is the confused use of the words “then” and “than”. Any high school graduate that paid the slightest bit of attention in English class should know “then” is used when one thing follows another, and “than” is used when comparing one thing to another.
When one runs a spell checking program these two words will come through unscathed, yet how many people use a grammar checker when writing an email? Certainly an author of noted caliber would use a grammar checker when authoring his/her newest bestseller, yet I still find these two words used improperly in just about every book I read.
The United States education system and the editors and proofreaders are at fault here. If publishing companies are hiring the fresh-out-of-college-wannabe-writers, willing to do anything to break into the business at low or no wages, they are getting exactly what they are paying for. We the consumers of such ill-written literature are paying the price by having to put up with such annoying mistakes.
We suffered slings and arrows to learn our grammar in school. It wouldn’t hurt the whiners to suffer a little, too! Loved the patronizing guy who decided that because she edits, she certainly can’t be a writer. But, oops, she wrote this blog. If you write good ideas stupidly, you aren’t a writer either. You don’t let an editor try to figure out your lousy grammar or punctuation, because often that can change the meaning of what your are trying to write (and probably make a laughingstock out of you to boot). There is a reason why rules are good for writers, and help writers to be better at their craft. Most of the mistakes I find are spell-check errors that a real human would find. It is sad that quality doesn’t seem to matter.
As an English (UK) reader, I had always thought that “lay” for “lie” was American usage. When Bob Dylan croaked intransitively “Lay, lady, lay”, I thought this could only apply in English usage to a hen. “Now I lay me down to sleep” indicates it is transitive/reflexive, however. Unhappily, and not just thanks to Dylan, intransitive verbs are widely susbstituted for their more precise transitive betters in UK usage too. I suspect their very open-endedness (read, vagueness) appeals to many, alas.
For all we know Johnny Temple did write “The lambs have lain down with the sheep,” and his editor wisely changed it to “The lambs have laid down with the sheep.” Ann Patty has a tin ear. No one who would say “Go the f**k to sleep” would use the word, “lain” under any circumstances. Probably wouldn’t know there was such a word. A good editor knows when a voice is authentic; grammar nazis should confine themselves to editing university press books.
Oi! I just realized that Johnny Temple is the publisher of the book, not the author. That person is Adam Mansbach. I wish Ann had made that clear in her article. But then, nobody’s perfect.
It’s not only U.S. publishers whose standards have eroded. A book I reviewed last year for the British journal Learned Publishing had over 100 errors in it–and this was published by the Publishers Association of Great Britain no less. You’d think a publishers association would be especially careful to produce an error-free book.