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The Sunday Magazine

New Yorker copy editor Mary Norris on the joys and perils of proper English

For more than three decades, Mary Norris has been scouring the pages of The New Yorker magazine long before each issue is published. As a copy editor, she is responsible for ensuring the stories that land on her desk are written clearly, punctuated properly and contain no typos or misspellings. Her book "Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen" explains the craft of editing, but also abounds with anecdotes about writers such as Philip Roth, Calvin Trillin, John MacPhee and the magazine's legendary editor, William Shawn.
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Mary Norris began working at The New Yorker in 1978 and has been a query proofreader for the magazine since 1993. (Josef Astor)
Sunday Edition33:48New Yorker copy editor Mary Norris on joys and perils of proper English

Mary Norris has taken not a red pen, but her trusty Ticonderoga​ No.1 lead pencil to the work of some of the best writers of our time: Philip Roth, Pauline Kael, Calvin Trillin, Nora Ephron and other contributors to The New Yorker. For more than three decades, Ms. Norris has been charged with making sure that one of the most-respected magazines in the business continues to publish clear writing that is punctuated properly and has no typos or misspellings. 

"Mostly, copy editors work in a bit of a vacuum," says Ms. Norris. "We don't get to talk to the writers very much. Mostly, copy editing queries go through an editor and it's kind of a good-cop-bad-cop situation. If the editor suspects the writer's not going to like it, she'll blame the copy editor!"

Despite this one-step-removed connection, Ms. Norris has forged relationships with some writers. During her interview with Michael, she tells the story of a proposition from one of her favourite authors, Philip Roth. She and Michael also talk about the joys and challenges of her work and some of the finer points of proper English usage.

Her new book is called Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen. She is also the star of a New Yorker video series about language called "Comma Queen".

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