Shuja, a reader of this blog and the editor of a student-run publication, asks what unique methods and safeguards NGM has to ensure its excellent quality.

I don’t think we have any methods unique to the Geographic. Rather, we do what serious editors everywhere do: We read, read, and read. Sometimes the same copy editor reads all proofs of the same story. Other times copy editors switch off on reading proofs. In the final stages, our articles go through a proofreader. And throughout the process many other eyes—among them the editor in chief, the managing editor, the text editor and researcher for each article—read and reread what is to be published. That’s why it’s almost inexplicable when something slips past all these keen eyes.

In addition to reading and rereading, we also count on our knowledge and experience. We care about proper word usage, and we like to debate correct grammar and punctuation and puzzle out strange constructions (though, I have to admit, none of us is terribly skilled any more at diagramming sentences).

Sometimes, despite our knowledge, the brain just shorts out and misses something that it should know. Just today, a copy editor corrected a sentence that two others of us had read right over: She changed “One out of four Chinese are migrants” to “One out of four Chinese is a migrant.” One can argue that the meaning of this construction implies more than a single person and therefore a plural verb is justified (“notational agreement” is the term used in Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage), but our normal style at National Geographic is to follow the construction of the sentence and use a singular verb with the subject one.

How do we stay together, maintaining consistency with so many staff commenting on copy? Perhaps our most important tool is the National Geographic Style Manual, an in-house guide to editorial style now available to the public electronically. A committee of editors from throughout the National Geographic Society—representing print, television, and electronic media—meets monthly to discuss issues and keep the manual up-to-date, which enables us to maintain consistency among all our many publications and products.

On the NGM staff we have a Copydesk Director, whose responsibility is to ensure uniformity throughout the magazine. This position was established last year—taking the copy editing function out of the research division where it had resided for eons—committing the magazine to an even more intensive scrutiny before it’s sent to the printer. And speaking of the printer, there have been times when someone at the printing plant has spotted a typo.

So, you see, Shuja, it takes a whole editorial village to reach our standards. When on rare occasions we falter, our loyal readers are quick to let us know. Their high expectations encourage us to work harder. Good luck to you in your striving to print an “impeccable issue, devoid of mistakes.”

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