Juvenile Book Editors on Style: A Survey Report

Abstract

Juvenile Book Editors on Style:A Survey Report Celia Catlett Anderson A concern for communicating clearly with the young in the books written for them has been in evidence since the inception of the audience-defined genre called children's literature. In this century the concern has become systematized, and formulas have been developed for vocabulary control, especially for schoolroom use. As books like Bettelheim and Zelan's On Learing to Read show, such limitations on style are controversial even when confined to primers and readers; and they seem unnecessarily rigid in general children's books. To find out how pervasive the formula approach is in the juvenile departments of publishing houses and, also, to learn something about editors' attitudes on style and language in literature for the young, I surveyed sixty-five editors, whose houses were selected to represent a good cross-section of large and small publishers of children's books. An encouraging number (38 or 58%) of those surveyed responded between August and November of 1982 and revealed that, while most do ask for some simplification or clarification of language on occasion, only a small minority apply readability formulas or routinely ask for simplified language in manuscripts intended for juveniles. Furthermore, the additional comments that thirty-three respondents provided made clear that rigid editorial policies are rare. Here, with the collated answers, is the questionnaire the editors received: Questionnaire on Style and Language in Juvenile Books Please check all categories that apply. 1. Do you have a special department for children's books 5/13.5%, adolescent books 1/2.5%, both combined 32/84%? [End Page 132] 2. If not, do you have separate editors for childen's books 4/11%, adolescent books 2/5%, both combined 22/58%, no answer 10/26%? 3. Please indicate whether the person answering this questionnaire works primarily with children's books 6/15.5%, adolescent books 0, both combined 31/82%, no answer 1/2.5%. 4. Do you have special stylesheets for the authors or for the copy editors of picture books 1, children's books 4, adolescent books 3, special series 1, one for all 1, none 33/87%? If so, please enclose copies. (7 sent) 5. Do you work with any reading specialists concerning language in juvenile books? Routinely 6/15.5%, Occasionally 15/39%, Never 16/42%, No answer 1/2.5%. 6. Do you ask authors to simplify the language in manuscripts being considered for publication as juvenile books? Routinely 5/13.5%, Occasionally 24/63%, Never 4/10.5%, No answer 3/8%, Rarely (added) 2/5%. If so, would you give some examples of the type of changes requested? (21 given) 7. Do you apply any linguistic criteria in assigning a book an age range for marketing purposes? Yes 15/39%, No 20/53%, No answer 3/8%. If so, would you list some examples and/or cite any standard sources used. (Readability formulas used by 7 in various combinations: Spache, 6; Dale-Chall, 5; Fry, 1.) 8. Any additional comments would be very welcome. (11 given) At the end of the questionnaire, after identifying themselves and their publishing house, nineteen of the editors said they wished to remain anonymous and thirty asked for the results of the survey. As a glance shows, some of the questions were geared toward creating a profile of the respondents. The publishing houses generally (84%) combined children's and adolescent books in one department, and the large majority (82%) of the editors answering dealt with both. Question two about separate editors is not clear statistically, and seems the result of some overlap in answering. Although only one house had a special adolescent department, one other editor noted that they were in the process of establishing a young adult section. The other questions concerned policies on style and language or the use of stylesheets, reading specialists and readability formulas. The statistical compilation of the answers to these questions (4 through 7) shows that there is no pervasive, cut-and-dried technical approach to editing the language for juvenile books. A majority (54%) do work with reading specialists, but of these only 15.5% use them routinely. When...