Origins of the comma

The Hot Word at Dictionary.com tells the history of the comma today:

The comma’s ancestors have been used since Ancient Greece, but the modern comma descended directly from Italian printer Aldus Manutius. (He’s also responsible for italics and the semicolon!) In the late 1400s when Manutius was working, a slash mark (/, also called a virgule) denoted a pause in speech. (Virgule is still the word for comma in French.) Manutius made the slash lower in relation to the line of text and curved it slightly. In the 1500s, this new mark acquired the old Greek name “comma”. The word comma literally meant “a piece cut off” from the Greek word koptein meaning ”to cut off”.

The Blog Grammar Blip has a nice article on what is called the serial comma.

Summer schedule

I was talking with Necla Hanım on Tuesday about dates for September defense. After all of the mathematics we determined that final date for submission of theses for editing is 15 August.

Please note that that is the final date.

I am not sure what kind of noise distortion there is among students, but when I say "final date" students usually hear "submit at the very latest date possible, which is a few days before the defense.

Defense date--->go back two weeks for jury members to read thesis--->three or four days for you to make the corrections I have indicated in your thesis--->four or five days for the average editing of the average MA thesis of 150 pages---->waiting in line in the editing queue, which entirely depends on who is in front of you.

There are rumors of a few Ph.D. dissertations coming. Each one takes about two weeks to edit.

Just so you know.

Definition of Editing Terms

The ATA Editing Office provides copy editing services free of charge to students of the Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History at Bosporus University.

It is important that the adviser and the student understand the limits of the work permitted and the amount of time needed to edit a text. The following chart explains the different kinds of editing and notes whether they are offered by the Editing Services Office.

Definition of Terms
Type of editing	Description	Service offered
Proofreading	Checking for typos and format mistakes.	Yes
Copy editing	Grammar, spelling, punctuation and other mechanics of style	Yes
Stylistic editing	Clarify meaning, smoothing language and other non-mechanical line-by-line editing.	Some
Substantive or structural editing	Clarifying and/or reorganizing a manuscript for content and structure. This level of critique belongs to the thesis adviser.	No
Deep editing	Basic spelling and basic grammar mistakes, basic formatting, rewriting bits, translating terminology	No
Format check	Final check before the manuscript is published	Yes

Chronological enthnocentrism

Finally, a term for it! Salon.com has an article that discusses the bias we have toward the past. I am personally sensitive to this because I am at heart a medievalist, and people are constantly portraying the medieval period as barbaric and very dark (everyone knows the Dark Age was dark because the sun never shone!).

Sometimes I run across this bias in the papers I read, modern people looking back and wondering why something that we take for granted was not available or done in the past. In theses on women's issues this comes up once and a while. I've seen it in discussions of other topics as well.

This ideology of progress amounts to a chronological form of ethnocentrism. Thus chronological ethnocentrism is the belief that we now live in a better society, compared to past societies. Of course, ethnocentrism is the anthropological term for the attitude that our society is better than any other society now existing, and theirs are OK to the degree that they are like ours.
Chronological ethnocentrism plays a helpful role for history textbook authors: it lets them sequester bad things, from racism to the robber barons, in the distant past. Unfortunately for students, it also makes history impossibly dull, because we all “know” everything turned out for the best. It also makes history irrelevant, because it separates what we might learn about, say, racism or the robber barons in the past from issues of the here and now. Unfortunately for us all, just as ethnocentrism makes us less able to learn from other societies, chronological ethnocentrism makes us less able to learn from our past. It makes us stupider.

Stop arguing

In the theses I have been editing recently there has been a trend towards using the word "argue" any time a scholar is quoted or paraphrased.

It is being used in place of words like "writes", "notes," "holds, "states," or even "says," and even worse than incorrect use, it is being used as the ONLY verb to introduce what other scholars think. Which is boring.

The meaning of "argue" is "disagree" or "debate." Even in its more passive meanings there is the idea of someone on the other side having to be convinced of something.

: to give reasons for or against something : reason 2 : to contend or disagree in words : dispute transitive verb 1 : to give evidence of : indicate 2 : to consider the pros and cons of : discuss 3 : to prove or try to prove by giving reasons : maintain 4 : to persuade by giving reasons : induce

Of all of these, only number three, "indicates" comes close to the meaning that is needed in writing about what scholars write. Of course, if you are writing about a theoretical argument, by all means use "argue", but if the quoted scholar is not arguing or trying to persuade anyone, don't say that he is. It makes me look around for his opponents.

The origins of "argue" are interesting. "Akin" means "related to"...so "argue" is...according to the Sun Theory...Turkish!

Middle English, from Anglo-French arguer to reprove, argue & Latin arguere to demonstrate, prove; Anglo-French arguer, from Latin argutare to prate, frequentative of arguere; akin to Hittite arkuwai- to plead, respond

APA Reference Webpage

 I have just come across a comprehensive web page on APA References. It may be the best I have ever seen (believe me I have seen many).

Until I have time to produce a guide for ATA, please see this list as reference: Murdoch Edu

Just sayın'

So I am concerned.

It's May 3rd, there are 12 days left to the deadline to submit manuscripts to the jury, , and I have only received two partials (one or two chapters to be given to the jury for consideration for extension to August 1). I have two MA theses  to do and a 400-page doctoral dissertation coming. Even without the dissertation, I still will have only two or three days free before your deadline. There is not much to say but ...you need to rethink your planning skills!

I do not give grades and I cannot punish you in any way, but I do keep to the Editing Queue and will only break from it under direct orders from the Institute Director. You have got just a tiny window of opportunity for editing before the extension jury...

Just sayin'.

Editors have feelings, too

I just finished working on Elif Mahır Metinsoy's harrowing 500-page doctoral dissertation. I say "harrowing" not because of its length-- the definition of "harrowing" is "extremely upsetting because connected with suffering"-- but because it is about World War One, and by extension the Balkan Wars and the War for Independence, and how Muslim Turkish women, in the absence of their men and without any real means of (or very little) income, managed to survive those many years of war. It is a devastating read. 

When I read a thesis, I enter into its atmosphere while I try to figure out how to improve on the story it is telling by fixing grammar and expression. This dissertation  has changed the way I look at Istanbul, and maybe Turkey, forever.


For example, this weekend I was looking at a big book I have on the yalıs on the Bosporus. I had looked at it before. During my undergraduate and graduate studies I took as much art and architectural history as I could and like this kind of book (see "busman's holiday" below)... but this time I noticed when they were built-- many of them between the start of the Balkan Wars and the end of the War for Independence. There are photographs of the owners and snippets from magazine articles and gossip columns of the day. They look content, well-fed, and well-dressed.

All I could think of was Marie Antionette. 

What you probably don't know is  that while Marie Antionette was in prison waiting for execution, she had the presence of mind to make sure that six of her palace cats were safe, shipping them off to  the US with an American sea captain from the state of Maine. (By the way, this website about this sea captain is an excellent example of how Americans, lacking any truly interesting local history, will create landmarks out of just about anything and then tourists will  visit them for their personal edification) 

And what kind of cats were these, you might ask?

Turkish Angora.

And what does that have to do with the price of grain in Turkey in 1915? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's editing season and all of my thoughts run wild, crashing into each other like this and getting connected.

In January I adopted this cat. She had been found in the street, in the snow, starving. When she came to me she was dirty and her fur was all matted. I washed her and this is what I found! But sadly, it quickly became apparent that I was allergic to her and I had to pass her on to someone else. But is she not magnificent? Maşallah.  

That is called a "non-sequitor," by the way. (Non sequitur (literary device), an irrelevant, often humorous comment to a preceding topic or statement.)

I just wanted to say that I not only edit your text, I feel your message. It's difficult work physically and between that and digesting all of the content, often by the end of a thesis it feels like my brain is over loaded and I need to take a break. Anyone can edit a paper for you, but not that many people make a career of it. It's exhausting.

 Years later you may approach me somewhere and say, "Kathryn Hanım, remember me?" and I will stare at you blankly because I am bad with faces-- but if you tell me what the topic of your thesis was, I will remember the feeling of it, and then I will remember the feeling I had about you, and then finally I will remember you and any conversation we had. For me it is all about feeling. Memory is a funny thing.

("busman's holiday" is an expression to means one does in one's spare time what one does at work. The bus driver goes on a bus trip, I read history!)

My other blog

I was talking with a student just now and mentioned this and she asked for a link. I have another blog. I started it recently. It's called İzgiCreative. It is meant to be a showcase for the artistic work of my family. My husband, Sinan İzgi, is an architect. My daughter, Sunaliza, is a singer-song-writer and sometimes painter. And I write books. I am told my series of three novels will be published this Spring, hopefully they will. I'm also working on some other book projects, one of them involving academic writing (surprise!) So my plan is to collect projects and showcase them here.

Just because she is so awesome

This is very personal, but is is so cool I wanted to post about it: This is my grandmother, who was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1909. As a young girl she emigrated with her family to the US and ended up settling in a German-speaking village in North Dakota, marrying and having two children, and eventually becoming the post mistress of the town (population 500). She drove a car well into her 90s and then moved to be near my aunt and her family in a city in Montana. Yesterday was her birthday. she turned 103. My family on my father's side threw a big party for her and took her on a carriage ride. You can watch this video!

What happens at the Institute stays at the Institute

This should go without saying, but I feel the need to state publicly that the editing services I provide at the Atatürk Institute are only for people enrolled at the Institute.

1. I am forbidden to edit in my official capacity for students outside of the Institute. Sometimes people from other Institutes at Boğaziçi contact me to edit their theses, but I am not allowed to do it.

2. Once you have graduated from the Institute, you are no longer eligible for free editing services. Period.

3. The only exception to rule no. 2 is for our graduates who are applying to other graduate programs abroad and need help with their SOPs.

Apologies

I had to leave my office at 1:00 today. An unusual family emergency came up. Since then I have learned that two papers have arrived, I've marked them on the editing queue.

Levels of writing

When someone asks me how long it takes to edit a thesis, I usually say "10 pages an hour or 50 pages a day." This is a general estimate. Some go more quickly, some go much more slowly. I do not give out grades, but I do separate levels of writing into five categories. These are just categories I use myself. I do not write them down or tell anyone. You can ask when you pick up your paper where I think you fall-- or you can tell from how many days it took.



5. Native speaker. Requires proofreading. 10+ pages an hour.

4. Advanced writing from non-native speaker. Everything is understandable, some tense problems and "the" problems. 10+ pages an hour.

3. Average writing from non-native speaker. Tense problems, some vocabulary and comprehension problems. 7-10 pages an hour.

2. Below average non-native speaker. Major issues with comprehension (often direct translations from Turkish), serious tense and vocabulary issues, 3-5 pages an hour.

(1. This level is not seen at Boğaziçi. Yes, we are smug.)

So a Level 4 Ph.D. dissertation of 400 pages would take me a maximum of 8 days (plus the weekend)....but the same length dissertation at a level 2 would take me up to 26 days (plus weekends).

The average MA thesis is 150 pages would take
Level 4= 3 days,
Level 3= 4 days,
Level 2= up to 10 days (plus weekend).



When the Institute (not I) sets the deadlines for submission of theses and dissertations, it is assuming that everyone is writing at a Level 4 even though the average is Level 3. It is wise to submit your paper as early as you can because you have no idea what is in the line ahead of you. A couple of years ago, right in the middle of all the MA theses an 800-page doctoral dissertation appeared that took about a month to edit. This month I know of at least one 400-page doctoral dissertation that is coming. The number of students accepted into the program has increased dramatically in the last five years or so, and the relatively recent practice of allowing a summer extension has added to the difficulty of estimating how things will go.

To people submitting partial manuscripts

Someone just wrote and asked if it is necessary to submit all of the front matter along with the one-two chapters necessary for the application for the summer extension.

No.

My answer:

No. you do not need the front matter, but you might like to have a cover page so the jury knows what it is, and it might not be a bad idea to write up an outline for the rest of the paper so they can see that you have thought out your project and are ready to make use of the extension time. 

By the way, the deadline for submission of COMPLETED theses for defense in September is August 1.  The jury must have the edited thesis by September 1, and it looks like there will be quite a few theses for me to edit in August, so the earlier you submit, the better.

Also, I'd like to let you know that I take my annual leave in July.

The mystery of dual page numbering explained

 The Institute requires that the Front Matter of a thesis have small Roman numerals (i, ii, iii) and the Main Text Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3). I need to see this when you submit your thesis to me in .doc format.


"But Word does not allow for more than one kind of page number," a student recently told me.


Not true. Word will let you put in as many different numbering systems as you like. The thing that everyone seems to forget is that Word, or Open Office, is a word processing program. It exists to take commands-- it is not your overlord! It is your friend, your faithful companion. You just need to learn it first. And you should learn it because most of you want to make a career in academia and academia is all about writing.


Here I will tell you the secret of making two sets of page numbers in the same document. It's a little strange because you have to start in the middle of the document first:




1. Assemble the manuscript, Front Matter and Main Text and cover pages.

Separate the sections.

2. Find the last page of the Front Matter
3. "Insert"-->"break"-->"section break(next page)"

 This from the MS Word website directions: To use different numbering in different sections of your document, you need to make sure that the sections are not linked.

Put in the Arabic numerals 
 

3. Go to the first page of the Main Text
4. "Insert"--> "page numbers format"

5. Make sure this starts from "1"

6. Inside of "page number", click "Format",
6. Under "Page Numbering" choose "Start at" and enter in "1"
7. Save

Put in the Roman numerals

8. Go to the first page of the Front Matter, in our case, the Approval Page.
9. "Insert page number"
10. "Format" --> choose small roman numerals
11. Under "Page Numbering," choose "Start at" and enter: "iii"
12. Save

A small reminder

I would like to remind everyone that I do not work on weekends, which includes responding to emails. I know you are getting nervous about the deadline, but so am I, and I need my rest. I'll be back on the horse Monday morning.  :))

This is my favorite artist, Sunaliza. She is also my daughter. You can listen to her songs on soundcloud.com: http://soundcloud.com/sunaliza She is a completely self-taught musician and singer and these are her own pieces. I like how she is not trying to be like any of the singers with "big" voices, just nice and simple, letting her own "voice" come through and telling her own story. I strive for this in my own writing, and I push for this while editing.

Use short sentences and every day language. The goal is to transmit information, not impress anyone with your ability to use a thesaurus.

Priorities in writing:

1. Grammar.
The most common problems I correct are tense (use in the Simple Past tense for all but about 98% of the cases), and translating directly from Turkish and not bothering to rewrite it so it is functional English. This is a sign of poor planning (not leaving enough time to translate properly) or of thinking no one will notice below average performance...in other words, it means you don't mind being judged as unprofessional.

Have your friends read your drafts and make suggestions!

2. Vocabulary
The biggest problem is people trying to use the biggest words they possibly can-- and not understanding what they mean. Sometimes they know what it means, but the grammar is so weak that the contrast looks silly. It's as if you left the house dressed in wedding clothes on top and pajamas on the bottom.

Use every day words. When I edit your text, I will "upgrade" wherever I think the word you have chosen is too informal or not concise enough.

If you are having trouble writing, try imagining someone you love who is intelligent who knows nothing of your topic but is curious, and explain your topic to him or her. Or you can use your cat. Or a stuffed animal. Or me. The important thing is to capture the feel of the narrative. Or as someone once said to me, "Just tell the story, damn it!"

P.S. Daughter is 20 and studying economics in the US.

Heh heh

New rules!

I talked with Şevket Bey and Zafer Bey today about the submission schedule and details. Because almost all of the MA students will be applying for a summer extension and then defending their theses in September, I won't have many full theses to edit and will have time to edit the chapters that will be shown to the jury in mid-May.

The deadline of 20 April stands, as does the requirement of having your advisor sign off on your chapter attesting that it is in its final form.

Also, your chapter must be prepared according to the Institute Style Guide.

Only complete theses are accepted for editing

I have been editing theses and dissertations at the Institute for 17 years. I estimate something like 55,000 pages in all. As the years have gone by I have had to introduce rules as a result of unpleasant experiences.

 The rule about only editing completed theses came about five years ago when I edited June theses and also about 15 incomplete papers that students were submitting to the Institute in order to qualify for extensions. I worked very hard (we had a record number of papers that year) and got it all done in time, only to find in August that a few of the students had been been dropped from the program and others had left for one reason or another. In September I edited the completed theses, but had to re-edit what I had done in the Spring because changes had been made.

All in all, I lost about two weeks of work done under very stressful conditions. I discussed this with the Institute and it was decided that I would edit only completed theses and dissertations.

 I function as the managing editor of the Institute's publication activities. If you were submitting a text to a publisher, you would be expected to give the whole, completed text. The jury acts as content editor and I am the style and format editor. We need to see a complete work at each step of the approval process in order to evaluate it.

When you submit your thesis or dissertation to me on 20 April, you must also have a form signed by your advisor certifying that your thesis is in its final form, and that no changes will be made later with the exception of small changes the jury might demand. I'll be sure to post this form before the 20th.

//--//--//

Each thesis or dissertation is carefully inspected for freshness by our domestic feline control personnel.

(This is my cat, Sassy)