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Michael Maloney wondered about the flaming he'd get if he
called editors "idiots". Well, Mike, speaking from the
other end of the red pen, you'd get no disagreement from me
provided that you added the word "professional". But
wait... there's method to my madness!
As an editor, I often explain my job as follows: "I'm a
_professional_ idiot. That is, my job is to misunderstand
any writing (and fix it) before your readers trip over the
problem." (TM 1995 Geoff Hart) If I could figure out how to
do it for free, I'd trademark that phrase properly, thus,
no flame from this direction! (Of course, if you're editing
out of the goodness of your heart, feel free to charge
nothing, and strike the "professional" part of the
definition.)
--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: If I didn't commit it in print in one of our
reports, it don't represent FERIC's opinion.
