Wolcott Gibbs's Theory and Practice of Editing

The average writer, said theater critic and copy editor Wolcott Gibbs (1902-1958), "is ornate to no purpose, full of elegant variations, and can be relied upon to use three sentences where a word would do." To combat such tendencies, Gibbs set down 31 rules for the benefit of his "semi-literate" colleagues at The New Yorker magazine. Among these needy authors, by the way, were E.B. White, A.J. Liebling, James Thurber, H.L. Mencken, Dorothy Parker, S. J. Perelman, and Robert Benchley.

Of Gibbs's 31 original precepts, at least a dozen still deserve our attention even if we never intend on publishing our work in The New Yorker.

• Adverbs
  Writers always use too damn many adverbs. On one page recently I found eleven modifying the verb "said." "He said morosely, violently, eloquently, so on." Editorial theory should probably be that a writer who can't make his context indicate the way his character is talking ought to be in another line of work. Anyway it is impossible for a character to go through all these emotional states one after the other. Lon Chaney might be able to do it, but he is dead.



• The Word "Said"
  Word "said" is O.K. Efforts to avoid repetition by inserting "grunted," "snorted," etc., are waste motion and offend the pure in heart.



• Clichés
  Our writers are full of clichés, just as old barns are full of bats. There is obviously no rule about this, except that anything that you suspect of being a cliché undoubtedly is one and had better be removed.



• Sentences Beginning With Conjunctions
  Our employer, Mr. Ross, has a prejudice against having too many sentences beginning with "and" or "but." He claims that they are conjunctions and should not be used purely for literary effect. Or at least only very judiciously.



• Needless Repetition
  The repetition of exposition in quotes went out with the Stanley Steamer:

  Marion gave me a pain in the neck.
  "You give me a pain in the neck, Marion." I said.

  This turns up more often than you'd expect.



• Profanity
  This magazine is on the whole liberal about expletives. The only test I know of is whether or not they are really essential to the author's effect. "Son of a bitch," "bastard," and many others can be used whenever it is the editor's judgment that this is the only possible remark under the circumstances. When they are gratuitous, when the writer is just trying to sound tough to no especial purpose, they come out.



• Dialect
  In the transcription of dialect, don't let the boys and girls misspell words just for a fake Bowery effect. There is no point, for instance, in "trubble" or "sed."



• Multiple Adjectives
  Mr. Weekes [a New Yorker editor] said the other night, in a moment of desperation, that he didn't believe he could stand any more triple adjectives. "A tall, florid and overbearing man called Jaeckel." Sometimes they're necessary, but when every noun has three adjectives connected with it, Mr. Weekes suffers and quite rightly.



• Unnecessary Transitions
  The more "As a matter of facts," "howevers," "for instances," etc. etc. you can cut out, the nearer you are to the Kingdom of Heaven.



• Puns
  On the whole, we are hostile to puns.



• The Reference Book
  So far as possible make the pieces grammatical--but if you don't the copy room will, which is a comfort. Fowler's English Usage is our reference book. But don't be precious about it.



• Style
  Try to preserve an author's style if he is an author and has a style. Try to make dialogue sound like talk, not writing.

For the complete list, see the "Theory and Practice of Editing New Yorker Articles" in The Years with Ross, by James Thurber (1958), reprinted by Harper Perennial Modern Classics in 2000.