Lefty novelist Ron Jacobs has published a glowing review of Gregg Shotwell’s new book Autoworkers Under the Gun, a title I thoroughly enjoyed proofreading.  Autoworkers, new this spring from Haymarket Books, traces Shotwell’s career as a rabble-rousing rank-and-filer in the Detroit UAW.  It’s a curated collection of his shop-floor rag Live Bait & Ammo, in which Shotwell takes on greedy Big Three auto-industry CEOs and collaborationist “business unionists” in the UAW with equal gusto, firing off wisecracks mixed with genuine anger, a veteran’s knowledge of the industry, and key insights into union politics. 

Though I have yet to meet him in person, I’m proud to count Gregg Shotwell as my union brother; I joined the National Writers’ Union (UAW local 1981) last summer.  The week after I joined, this assignment landed on my desk.  I laughed, I fumed, I shouted choice quotes to my husband.  It was quite the introduction to my new union.  (I hope to learn more about the NWU soon– Philadelphia union meetings are starting next month.  If you’re a Philly-area writer, come and check it out at Campbell’s Pub in Chestnut Hill this May 19 at 6 pm.)

Jacobs sums the book up well:

Autoworkers Under the Gun makes it very clear how the auto industry’s exorbitant payments to its executives and management combined with a penchant for bankruptcy destroyed it.  Calling globalization a “four bit word for sweatshop,” Shotwell points out how CEOs and their co-conspirators control the discussion about the economy by blaming the workers for wanting to earn a living and pension. As most readers know, the other part of this scenario involves those executives purposely downsizing the corporation by moving jobs offshore.   His biting commentary reminds the reader how intentional this entire process is.

If you’re in a union– or if you think unions are useless and corrupt– this book is for you. With plenty of laughs and a personality that leaps off the page, Shotwell will school you in just how frustrating the US labor movement is, how we got there, and where we go from here.

Tips for Clear Business Writing from Sarah Grey, Grey Editing LLC

Shalom Rav is a pun: the literal Hebrew translation is “abundant peace,” but in conversation it can also mean “Hello, rabbi!” Rabbi Brant, who is part of (but does not speak for) the left-leaning Jewish Reconstructionist tradition, is a congregational rabbi in Evanston, Illinois, a prominent member of Jewish Voice for Peace, and a founder of Ta’anit Tzedek–Jewish Fast for Gaza.  He’s been blogging for several years, but things got really interesting in late 2008, as Israel’s Operation Cast Lead rained death onto the besieged Gaza Strip.  As the war began, Rabbi Brant took an unusual stand in a post declaring that he could no longer rationalize or apologize for Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

What Israel has been doing to the people of Gaza is an outrage. It has brought neither safety nor security to the people of Israel and it has wrought nothing but misery and tragedy upon the people of Gaza.

There, I’ve said it. Now what do I do?

The book provides an answer to that question, following the dialogue between Rabbi Brant, his congregants, the Palestinian solidarity movement, and the rest of the Internet as they struggle to square the events unfolding in Israel and Palestine with their ethical and religious values and political beliefs.  The quality of this ongoing argument is several levels above most of what you’ll find in the blogosphere in terms of both writing and civility, reflecting the fact that many participants are members not just of the “imagined community” (as the theorist Benedict Anderson would have it) of American Jews online, but of a local, personal, face-to-face community in Evanston.  Their interactions are sometimes infuriating, sometimes deeply moving, and always mediated by Rabbi Brant’s earnest, thoughtful reflection and skillful writing.

You won’t agree with everything in this book, but in a way, that’s the point.  Whatever your politics, you’ll find much to challenge, surprise, and move you.  I consider myself a fairly well-informed supporter of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement, but I have much to learn– and I’m learning a great deal as I edit and curate this fascinating text.  I can’t wait to share the finished product with you.

Some geeks get their jollies from science fiction; others write code or learn dead languages.  And some of us have a thing for reference books.

When I worked as a project manager in the translation industry, a coworker once fielded a call from an angry client complaining about the interpreter we’d sent.  He’d caught the Greek interpreter red-handed, he said, sitting around reading a Greek dictionary—what kind of fluent Greek expert could he be if he needed to brush up before a gig by reading the dictionary?  My coworker put the client on hold and gave me a confused look:  “Is that normal?” We polled the office; every single one of our resident word-lovers thought that reading the dictionary for fun was a perfectly normal and enjoyable thing to do. We recognized that misunderstood interpreter as one of our own. Why wouldn’t he read the dictionary? Dictionaries are fascinating!

Dictionaries, grammar books, encyclopedias, style guides: I love ‘em all.  My home office is full of them, and my bookmarks tab offers even more.  I love the Tamil dictionary a friend brought me from India and my Fowler’s and my BBI Dictionary of English Word Combinations. But my greatest love is reserved for the granddaddy of them all, the Chicago Manual of Style.  That’s the one pictured above, in tiny fondant form, on my birthday cake.*

CMOS, as it’s often called, has been around since 1906.  It weighs three pounds, which is why I’m glad there’s also a searchable online edition available by subscription.  I consult both many times a day, and I often read it without a question in mind, just to get a take on something I don’t fully understand or to see what little treasures I can dig up.  Whenever I’m stuck or confused, I turn to my CMOS.  If I make an edit I think the client might question, I add a note referring him or her to the chapter and verse underlying my decision.  I have settled bar bets with it.**

If you’re a professional editor or indexer who works in US English, you already own this book; if you’re interested in learning more about editing, or want to understand US style conventions, edit your own work better, or  improve your writing, it’s well worth the $40 price tag.  I also recommend checking in periodically with the Chicago Style Q&A, a monthly “ask the editors” column.  It touches on questions not answered in CMOS (believe it or not, there are some things missing), and it’s often hilarious:

Q. I’m using Shelley Jackson’s short story “Skin” as a primary source in an article I’m writing, but the story is published only as tattoos on the bodies of volunteers (one word per volunteer). How do I cite this work?

A. Cite it the same way you would “cite” your sandwich or your miniblinds or the fluff under your bathroom rug—not by trying to pretend it is a bibliographic source, but simply by telling what it is. In the text or in a note, write something like “Shelley Jackson’s ‘Skin’ is a story published only as tattoos on the bodies of volunteers (one word per volunteer).”

Q&A editor Carol Saller blogs at The Subversive Copy Editor and has also written a short and entertaining book by the same name that deals not with grammar but with the relationships editors must negotiate in their working lives. What’s particularly telling about the Q&A is that the CMOS editors treat its rules with far less rigidity than its readers often do! They cite its first edition to argue that these rules “cannot be endowed with the fixity of rock-ribbed law”—it’s OK, they remind us, to use common sense.

Whatever my former interpretation client might think, looking things up isn’t a sign of weakness or an admission of a lack of knowledge.  It means that you understand that there are limits to the knowledge of even the most brilliant experts; that you know you’re not infallible; and that you’re not lazy.  When new graduates who want to learn editing ask me for advice, I tell them to invest in good reference books and consult them constantly.  How else will you ever find out what you don’t already know?

*My husband Joe had it made by our neighbors, the astonishingly talented folks at Whipped Bakeshop. It depicts the 15th edition only because he couldn’t find a good high-resolution image of the cover of the 16th edition.

**This would be easier to do if they’d publish an iPhone app already.

—

Much of the dis­crim­i­na­tion that was legal in the Jim Crow era is today ille­gal when applied to black peo­ple but per­fectly legal when applied to “criminals.” The prob­lem is that through con­scious and uncon­scious choices, black peo­ple have been tar­geted at sig­nif­i­cantly higher rates for arrest and pros­e­cu­tion. So, where does this leave crim­i­nal justice?

Filmmaker/attorney Matt Pillischer’s documentary Broken On All Sides: Race, Mass Incarceration, and New Visions for Criminal Justice in the US makes its Philadelphia debut tonight. Featuring interviews with prisoners and their families, attorneys and judges, and activists, this powerful film interrogates the role of race in the criminal justice system, both for those imprisoned and those attempting to re-enter society after imprisonment.  Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, is featured prominently.

In the wake of the brutal killing of young African American man Trayvon Williams by a self-appointed neighborhood “vigilante,” questions of race and justice are at the forefront of the national debate right now.  If you’re moved to demand justice and want to educate yourself, engage in discussion and debate, and learn more about what you can do, please join the filmmaker and a panel of Philadelphia racial justice activists at Temple University this evening for a screening and discussion. The event is co-sponsored by the Black Student Union of Temple University, the Muslim Law Student Association of Temple Law School, and the National Lawyers Guild of Temple Law School.

Broken on All Sides

Screening and Discussion

6 pm, March 21, 2012

Reel Student Center Cinema

Lower Level, Student Center South

Temple University

1755 North 13th Street

Philadelphia, PA 19122

I played a small role in the development of the film by proofreading all of the text and title cards. I’m proud to be a part of this project, and I hope you’ll join us.