—Volunteers work smoothly for Operation Santa Clause [sic] (Tribune-Review [Online])
Dear Santa,
For Christmas, what I need most of all is a good copyeditor.
Love,
Pittsburgh Live.co
Okay, okay… To err is human.
I shouldn’t be so harsh on whoever typed the headline. It’s gloating blog entries like this that annoy professioal professional journalists and make them think of bloggers as “the enemy.” But as I deal with the final crush of rough drafts from my students, I’ve been upbeat and constructive and positive as much as humanly possible, and that takes its toll on a guy.
So I’ve briefly unleashed the unflinching grammar bastard who dwells within. That felt good.
Now it’s time to go back to being Professor Helpful.
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I’m sure Santa is furious with the Trib right now. :-)
Howabout “Scissors” Kilgore?
You know what, as much as I mentally edit things as I read, I agree with Bobby: it helps me to stay sharp. I might be the bane of someone’s grammatical existence when it comes to actually catching misspellings, syntax errors, and mechanical issues but I do enjoy it… somehow. I sometimes believe I was born to do these things. Now I just need a snappy code name.
Hoisted on my own petard!
I suppose part of the definition of “professional journalist” would be “Earning money for what you write, and having access to an editor who is paid to help you catch your stupid mistakes.”
One question: what does “professioal” mean (as in “professioal journalists”)?
Yes, but that “grammar bastard” also helps students pay closer attention to their writing, as I do to this day. I believe we all have one of those within us. I call mine Darth Bobby.