i LITERATURE There'll Always Be an Editor Technical editors spend a harassed existence fighting authors over manuscripts; good editors are rare J N I EVER H A V E T E C H N I C A L EDITORS b e e n
specifically trained for their profession," says John H . Wilson of the U. S. Naval Ordnance Test Station at China Lake, Calif. "Technical editors have been traditionally considered misfits, can'tdoers, and obstructionists," he stated, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Atlanta. "We still find some technical editors —who are often frustrated scientists— up to their usual game of thwarting authors," h e added. Stories are legend of the major papers turned down by responsible editors of professional technical journals. Helmholtz's early paper on conservation of energy was rejected, Wilson cited. And this was one of t h e fundamental papers not only of the nineteenth century, b u t of all physical science up to the present time. "I should be greatly surprised if Planck's first paper on the quantum of energy and Einstein's first paper on the special theory of relativity didn't give harassed technical editors some qualm," says Wilson. And some technical editors continue to reject revolutionary papers, Wilson adds. They continue to be forces for conservatism. Technical editors continue to play midwife, a n d wbere necessary, w e t nurse, to reports—either those coming out in professional journals or those b o u n d in separate covers. The professional editor is surrounded by a certain aura, the same aura that has always surrounded those who deal with the word or letter as a physical symbol. • The Don Juan Incident. The atmosphere in w h i c h technical editors spend a harassed existence is a very real one, Wilson claims. Citing one of Lord Byron's letters to his publisher in 1819, Wilson said Lord Byron gave his publisher a h a r d time. The significant letter, a b o u t the second canto of Don Juan, stated: "The poem will please, if it is Hvely; if it is stupid, it will fail; b u t I will have none of your damned cutting a n d slashing. . ." Technical editors, Wilson said, are not strangers to the attitude which Byron manifested toward his editor. 882
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• A Sense of Proportion. Subject matter must make sense to the editor, Wilson indicated. But the good editor must not become absorbed in the material; h e must maintain a high degree of objectivity toward the publication he handles. The technical editor must sit back and snipe. Like as not t h e technical editor is the only person all down the line who will succeed—because it is his job—in getting an over-all picture of the publication against t h e subject field. "Everybody else concerned with the publication is too involved in the details not to get lost among the nuts and bolts, the test tubes and Erlenmeyérs, the cloud chambers and cyclotrons," says Wilson. Any report is only one more p u b lication in hundreds the technical editor handles. T h e project's results must b e brought into line, made meaningful, related to other work in the field. And the technical editor is the one w h o knows what a meaningful presentation is. That's his business. Over-all intelligence of a competent technical editor must b e high, whereas the intelligence of the research specialist need be exceptional in a very limited field, says Wilson. Technical editing is likely to require the ability to leap back and forth from one job to another, keeping the details of five to 25 reports that are in the hopper on tap for any question that is likely t o come u p . • A Rare Bird. "Your technical editor today is part diplomat, part scholar, part technical man, and part Johnnyon-the-spot for any technical publishing problem that arises," Wilson claims. Mavericks so qualified are hard to come by. That's why good technical editors are rare—and with increasing demands,? exceedingly rare. There is more than a historical reason to indicate that technical editors5 will b e around for a while, Wilson asserted. Today's research and development activities, of which technical editing is a phase, are now forced by/ competition into a piece-rate basis. Since the editor is the expert in gettingy out technical information, his work< costs less than a piece-rate basis, so he'llι be around for a while.
• A N e e d for Training. Overwhelming problems of technical information demand that w e train people who can solve our technical information p r o b lems. Some step should be m a d e toward setting up machinery for instituting college curricula for training people in the technical editorial function, Wilson declared. Rensselear Polytechnic Institute has a one-year graduate course for technical writers, he added. It is t h e first of its kind i n the country, says Wilson.
Nuclear Physics A monthly journal, Nuclear Physics, is being published by North-Holland Publishing Co., Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The new periodical deals with the experimental and theoretical study of atomic nuclei, nuclear fields, and the fundamental aspects of cosmic radiation. Subscription price is $14 per year and, for the U . S. Α., should be sent to Interscience Publishers, 250 Fifth Avenue, New York 1, Ν . Υ.
Maintaining Your Sanity For harried technical writers a book let is available on "How to Write Tech nical Reports and Still Maintain Your Sanity." It was originally prepared for engineers of a military defense labora tory, and is now being used by several commercial research laboratories a n d college English departments. Single copies are available for 25 cents from Technical Marketing Associates, Con cord, Mass. Price reduction on over 100 copies.
NEW BOOKS Chemical Pilot Plant Practice. D. G. JORDAN. Vol. 1 of Interscience Chemical Engineering and Technology Library, viii -j- 152 pages. Interscience Pub lishers, 250 Fifth Ave., New York 1, Ν. Υ. 1955. $3.50. The scale-up problem; handling of solids, liquids, and gases; chemical reactors; separation process, cost estimation, and report writing. Salt & Water, Power & People, A Short History of Hooker Electrochemical Com pany.
ROBERT E. THOMAS,
xi -j-
109
pages. Hooker Electrochemical Co., Niagara Falls, Ν. Υ. 1955. Free. An Introduction to Chemistry. HOWARD L. RITTER. ix + 649 pages. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 440 Fourth Ave., New York 16, Ν. Υ. 1955. $6.50. The nature -of matter, the principles of chemical reaction, and the descriptive chemistry of the elements.
