The other day I asked my daughter to soak a pair of her rather grubby socks in the basin. When I went into the bathroom to get them they weren’t there. I found them in the kitchen. In the sink.

 So, that got me thinking. Is there a difference between the meanings of a basin and a sink?

I just assumed because I had used the word ‘basin’ she would know I meant the bathroom.

When you look these two words up in the dictionary, it is actually quite a job to find the word sink as a noun. I finally found the definition online in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/learner/sink where, right at the bottom of the page, it stated:

sinknoun
A large open container in a kitchen that has taps/faucets to supply water and that you use for washing dishes, in: Don't just leave your dirty plates in the sink! I felt chained to the kitchen sink (= I had to spend all my time doing jobs in the house). 

(I can relate to that!)

Apparently the word origin as a noun is Middle English from the verb sink.

Basin was easy to find and, as you will know, comes from the word washbasin. Below are both definitions:

basinnoun
Chiefly British. A bowl for washing, typically attached to a wall and having taps connected to a water supply; a washbasin.

washbasinnoun
(also basin) (both especially British English) (also sink North American English, British English) (also especially North American English washbowl)
A large bowl that has taps/faucets and is fixed to the wall in a bathroom, used for washing your hands and face in.

The origin is Middle English: from Old French bacin, from medieval Latin bacinus, from bacca ‘water container’, perhaps of Gaulish origin.
 

It’s interesting to note in the definition for washbasin that it says: ‘also sink North American English’. I asked my father and American stepmother and they both use 'basin' for the bathroom and 'sink' for the kitchen. Maybe that’s his English influence as he said that some Americans do call a bathroom basin a sink ...

The answer then to ‘When is a basin a sink?’ would generally seem to be ‘When it is in the kitchen’ – unless you are American!

  All definitions are taken from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/

Below is a situation that happened to me recently, and I wonder if any of you have come across anything similar?

I was contacted by a person who had written a book, originally on a manual typewriter. This had subsequently been put into a Word document using Dragon Speech Recognition Software and edited by the author. Because English wasn’t his first language, as you can imagine, this made the content interesting to say the least. He wanted his manuscript copy edited and proofread and made ready to publish.

I did a sample copy edit and proofread of a section that he sent me, which although needing a lot of alterations because of the language problems, didn’t seem an impossible task. After agreeing to do the job at a price below my usual charges, thinking it would be good experience and wanting to help someone who was trying to self-publish, he sent me the first section of 8,067 words.

Anyway, long story short, what he really needed was an editor. The work needed a complete rewrite to make it legible for an English speaking person. After having spent 30 hours rewriting those 8,067 words which stretched to 16 pages, I decided this was not actually something I was experienced enough to take on, especially when he told me that he had edited the changes I had made, added some more text to that section and wanted me to edit it again. He was also unhappy that I had not inserted any ‘academic’ words into it!?

So, back to the question. When is a copy editor not an editor?

The answer, it seems to me, is where there is a major rewrite involved.

As a copy editor I would expect to correct errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation and style; I would expect to edit for sense and make sure the meaning of the text is clear and makes sense; to check the length of sentences and paragraphs; check for consistency and improve language style.

However, I would NOT expect to be responsible for rewriting and restructuring the text in depth, ie content editing or substantive editing, which is what this required.

Especially not for the price he was prepared to pay for the work!

It’s not all about the money. Because I love my work, if I think a project will give me job satisfaction then so long as I don’t feel I am being taken advantage of I am happy to do the work. Unfortunately not the situation in this case!