Your 10 biggest grammar woes, solved
I was scrolling Twitter recently, as one too often does when facing a tight editing deadline, when I spied a tweet more offensive to me than anything I’ve ever read on the site, and that’s saying something. The tweet in question was a response to one of my favorite editors, who had advised writers to use spellcheck and proofread for grammar before submitting an essay for publication.
The guy answering her wondered why this was necessary. “If my idea is good enough,” he demanded, “why do I need to worry about grammar? That’s your job.”
As a longtime copy editor, I felt personally affronted by the tweeter. Not “worry” about grammar? The nerve. Clearly this dude was just lazy, I thought. I began dashing off a snide response but then remembered my impending deadline. I switched from social media combatant to editor mode and resolved to forget about the tweet…only I couldn’t.
I slowly realized Lazy Dude might have been sincere. Editors issue a lot of commands, and writers get, understandably, sick of being told to do things when they aren’t offered the “why” behind it.
