Typoz in Resumes

[Documania <dcma -at- MAIL1 -dot- NAI -dot- NET>]

Funny, I always thought that part of being a writer was knowing how to
spell and use basic grammar, and punctuation. When did that change? Or was
it never true?

You can make this into a commercial question as well. I understand that, in
general, writers earn more than copyeditors and proofreaders. But if that's
true, why aren't writers required to have a higher skill level than the
people who are supporting them? Are not spelling, grammar, and punctuation
the _base skills_ of the writing/editing trade, required of everyone making
a living in that trade? So why should writers be exempt?

A copyeditor is needed to check and clarify a writer's writing, not to
compensate for a writer's technical inability. And a proofreader is needed
to make sure that the layers and layers of revision and formatting are all
in place and correct. All of these parties need to know spelling, grammer,
and punctuation, as well as more sophisticated elements of the language.
The closer you are to a project, the less clearly you can see it. The
writing-editing-proofreading sequence is a proven quality control method.
But the functions are not totally separate; they merely indicate areas of
focus and responsibility.

I would never hire a writer, editor, or proofreader (or word processor,
typesetter, desktop publisher) who submitted a resume with even one error
on it. That tells me that the person does not take his/her profession
seriously.


Carolyn Haley
DocuMania
dcma -at- ct1 -dot- nai -dot- net

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