# Mary Norris: The nit-picking glory of The New Yorker's Comma Queen

"Copy editing for The New Yorker is like playing shortstop for a major league baseball team — every little movement gets picked over by the critics," says Mary Norris, who has played the position for more than thirty years. In that time, she's gotten a reputation for sternness and for being a "comma maniac," but this is unfounded, she says. Above all, her work is aimed at one thing: making authors look good. Explore The New Yorker's distinctive style with the person who knows it best in this charming talk.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2016
- Runtime: 9 min
- By: TED.com
- Genres: Education
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/MaryNorris_2016)
- Licence or status: [CC BY-NC-ND 3.0](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/) (as the archive states it)
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/MaryNorris_2016?play=1)