When meeting new people, I have a go-to first question: What do you wish people understood about your work?
Most people have an answer ready. Teachers are working even when they’re not in front of the classroom. Lawyers don’t spend most of their time in court. Stay-at-home parents aren’t just baking cookies and taking naps. And so on.
We have a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions about how other people spend their days. Sometimes it feels impossible to cut through the received notions and movie versions to discuss our lived experiences. This question helps.
Since I’ve got two main occupations—editing books and studying food culture—I have two misconceptions to clear up. First, about editing:
I’m not doing this to push through my own grammatical agenda. I’m not your cranky grandmother writing letters to the editor about declining linguistic standards in the local newspaper. My job is to be your most careful, most generous reader. Then I edit to make your argument and style clear and consistent throughout the book, so that less careful, less generous readers will be able to grasp them more easily.
Typos, comma splices, and misused homophones don’t make my blood boil. In fact, I am thoroughly desensitized to them after many years of high exposure. But they do undermine your authority and make your argument more difficult to grasp. Likewise, if I break up your long sentences or suggest removing half of your adjectives, I promise it’s not because I’m not on a quest to vanquish individual style and banish your personality. I’m just confident that if your meaning isn’t clear to me, it won’t be getting across to the rest of your audience, either. So please, don’t see this as a battle of wills.
Phew, that was a relief. Okay, on to the food studies! Here goes: I’m not a food snob. When I came home from the University of Gastronomic Sciences, a lot of friends and family members felt awkward about cooking for me. Partly this was because half of them still thought I had been in cooking school (maybe that should be my number-one misconception). But even after I explained about the coursework in culture and communications, the awkwardness lingered.
In truth, I’m fascinated by how food and cooking are situated in culture—what our recipes and tastes and traditions have to do with history, anthropology, economics, agriculture, race relations, religion, and so many other fields of human activity. Yes, I’ve been lucky enough to taste some amazing dishes over the course of my studies and travels. But great stories and warm feelings surrounding a meal trump high cuisine for me any day.
Trust me, I’m not going to go to a baseball game and order foie gras and champagne. Nor am I going to suddenly turn up my nose at my grandma’s egg salad. So please, don’t stop sharing snacks with me!
What about you? What misunderstandings about your life’s work are you itching to clear up?