I love these blank meme templates

This person doesn't know the meaning of "edit."

On DC Craigslist:

Editing a book (work at home)

Looking for a student majoring in English or comparative lit to edit a book translated from Polish. This has to be done quickly, ideally by year-end, starting immediately. Principals only.

****

I had to respond to the post:

I can barely believe your post. You're looking for someone -- a bilingual student -- with no editing experience to take on a book manuscript, in translation no less. You've got a lot to learn -- that is, everything -- about editing and publishing.

In one short ad, you have reduced the value of experience in the editing profession to virtually zero.

Maybe you'll find a little "editor" in your Xmas stocking Sunday morning. More likely you'll find pieces of coal.

The jury hands down its decision

I was looking for an old classic New York Times article on copy editing (not found) when I came across this headline from 10/30/63:

"COPY EDITOR FOUND GUILTY OF CONTEMPT"

That would pretty much be the ruling if the "12 Angry Men" were writers who had to have their work edited.

1000+ is the new 500

In my freelance editing of articles for posting to the Internet, I've been getting slammed in recent days by articles way over the suggested word count. These articles read like treatises.

I return the articles to the writers and politely request a rewrite, and suggest that they review the appropriate style guide. What I feel like writing is RTFSG!

Writers: can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.

Mas o menos?

This is a continuation of "Editors should be seen . . .," 3/9, below.

The context here is the requirement that each employee develop, in conjunction with her manager, business-related and personal development goals for the year. The manager has the option to add goals for the employee.

E-mail to my manager:

The following goal (your addition) contradicts our discussions regarding my author queries.

You added: “The number of proposals that should have identified more items for author review/approval than what was provided during the proposal process, also based on third party post reviews of submitted proposals.”

You have told me that there has been feedback (undocumented) from individuals (not named by you) that I write too many author queries. Again, and as I’ve tried to explain to you, I believe that my level of queries is appropriate.

It seems to me that defining a goal related to author queries can’t be done unless we agree on this critical editing function.

My manager has not yet responded.

4/7 Update: Still no response.

Editors should be seen and not heard from.

I just had a conversation with my manager, during which I pushed for some specifics related to my recent performance review.

In that review meeting, she said that she had received feedback from unnamed individuals that suggested I “need to step it up.” I have no idea if, in fact, she was being truthful, or if that was her inept way of offering the perfunctory message about improvement.

Regardless, what I got out of her today was a concern—maybe she said “complaint”; can’t remember—that there are too many instances when I query a writer rather than simply making the edit, be it a fix, a rewrite, or whatever.

I provided her an overview of author queries, with specific examples of when a query would be appropriate—for example, author intent unclear, conflicting information, and so forth.

Assuming some writers have complained to her about being “burdened” with what they consider unnecessary querying, this reflects how some writers view editors.

Over the years I have heard, directly and second-hand, writer comments such as: “They’re essentially a pain in the ass.” “They screw around with my writing. I’m the subject matter expert, not them.” “They waste my time with their stupid questions.” “They find fault with everything I write.”

Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to do the right thing. But, damn, it’s difficult to suspend one’s personal and professional standards.