Editing class with Roy Kent

We finally arrived at the class on copy editing on Monday night. 

Oh what fun!

As a writer, I'm not a strict grammarian. I'm not bad at grammar - I sorta need to be pretty good at it with my job - but the type of writing I do at work demands consistency, not strict rules. And I normallly can't be that bothered - although I do get a bit of a kick out of correcting documents at work. (and if anybody uses the word "utilise" in my presence again, I'll go full Roy Kent.)

I do what I need to at work to get documents across the line, but I don't go overboard. 

Yes, I find myself yelling at people about the use of apostrophes. It isn't that hard. They indicate omissions and they show possession. Not that fucking hard. But people make it so. Or they leave them out. 

Laymen aren't that good at commas. Or they over use Oxford commas, which I am firmly in the Use Sparingly camp. Okay, I hate them, but they do have a point. Like the old adage about the wombats and men. One eats roots, shoots and leaves. The other eats, roots, shoots, and leaves. 

I don't think most of the people writing docs for my current company have any idea about clauses, or dangling modifiers, or dangling. They're barely able to differentiate between when to use who an when to use whom - or point out the subject and object of a sentence. Muppets. 

Thing is, when you get into correcting people's grammar, they get rather snarky about it. The editor is your friend in publishing land, but not in a working environment. I make people shake in their boots when I come round with my red pen (or yellow highlighter)

I must say, I rather like it. But I can see behind people's eyes. 

Today's song: