Marilyn Schwartz

Marilyn Schwartz writes and lectures about editing. Her work draws on more than three decades of publishing experience as managing editor at the University of California Press and as an instructor of editorial workshops for UC Berkeley’s University Extension. She is co-author of THE COPYEDITOR'S HANDBOOK, 4th ed., a revised, updated, and expanded edition of the classic reference by Amy Einsohn (1952–2014), as well as the co-creator of a new companion volume of exercises, THE COPYEDITOR'S WORKBOOK, with Erika Büky (both published by University of California Press, 2019). Carol Saller, best-selling author of THE SUBVERSIVE COPY EDITOR, praises these books as “a complete course in manuscript editing.” “The next best thing to having a mentor,” says Katharine O’Moore-Klopf, list owner of Copyediting-L and curator of the widely consulted “Copyeditor’s Knowledge Base” on kokedit.com. Marilyn Schwartz's recent blog posts on editing include “English as We Have Loved It” (Northwest Editors Guild, https://edsguild.org/english-as-we-have-loved-it/) and “Calling All Copyeditors” (University of California Press, https://www.ucpress.edu/blog/31285/calling-all-copyeditors/). Her previous publications on editing include GUIDELINES FOR BIAS-FREE WRITING (Indiana University Press, 1995), “The Author and the Copyeditor” (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS IMPRINTS, Spring 1992), and “Inclusive Language and Other Dirty Words” (SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING, July 1987). She enjoys talking and writing about editing, describing her editorial work as both a “grammar hobby” and a profession. Her many audiences include the Bay Area Editors’ Forum, national and San Francisco divisions of the Editorial Freelancers Association, Communications Central, the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors, the Association of University Presses, and Bookbuilders West (now rebranded Publishers Professional Network).* Publishing, so goes the saying, is an accidental profession. True. In fact, after receiving a doctorate in English from the University of California, Davis, Marilyn Schwartz actually stumbled into her rewarding life’s work at the University of California Press. She was just looking for a summer job. __________ *An explanation from the grammar hobby files: Some professional editorial organizations use the plural possessive form in their names (Bay Area Editors’ Forum); others omit the apostrophe and instead use the plural attributive form (Editorial Freelancers Association, Publishers Professional Network). Both are correct. But various style guides differ on their advice concerning the form of common (lowercase generic) nouns used this way. Should you write “users’ guide” or “users guide”? THE COPYEDITOR'S HANDBOOK and WORKBOOK expand on this point and on other subtleties of English grammar and usage.