Listening Post: Ryan Adams

I had another review in the Listening Post Recorded section of The Japan Times this week, which now appears on the website. It turns out that they weren't running the reviews when my first review, Iron and Wine's In The Reins, appeared in the print edition. So this is the third. I find the 270 word limit constricting. So when does a piece of writing cease to be your own after editing? I would never use "honk" or "moper" and I'd say his forray into rock was brief rather than "lengthy." Anyway, you can see the original and compare the two pieces. Obviously, I prefer my edit.

Comments

[Arie]

My guess is that they ran the grammar \ spell checker on your version and thus "mope" became "moper" and "honky" became "honk".

One thing I remember about teaching English is that there were teachers with terrible grammar and spelling and once a student was burned they never completely trusted any of us again. Could your editor be one of those? :)

[MC]

Well, I think he was looking for synonyms for terms that I used before, but "honk" doesn't have the same connotations as "honky tonk," and niether does "moper" work for "mope rock."

My editor is American, and he mentioned that he didn't have time to run it by me, so he is forgiven. But I agree with him, that a 270 word piece shouldn't have any redundancies, but I've gotten into the habit of expository writing for academic papers and need to tinker with my style for the short reviews. We'll seee if I can get it right for the next review of Wilco's live album coming out in Japan at the end of next week.

[Edward]

You've got to write a short review (or any journalistic piece probably) like you would a cover letter, or other piece of business writing. Maximum impact with minimum details. I've spent years trying to shorten and simplify my writing style for business purposes - having been taught to waffle at school, where length often meant more marks.