Re: What to look for in a technical editor

Subject: Re: What to look for in a technical editor
From: Dick Margulis <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 17:01:31 -0400




Bonnie Granat wrote:


From: "Bill Swallow" <wswallow -at- nycap -dot- rr -dot- com>
: : ...which is why technical knowledge is of greater importance. An editor who
: does not know the technical info and moves a comma to make something
: grammatically correct might change the meaning of the technical info by
: mistake.
:
That's what I was trying to say. Thank you, Bill.




Bonnie,

I cannot argue that you were trying to say something different, but I hope that neither you nor Bill really wanted to say what Bill said.

I am not arguing for ignorance on anyone's part, least of all the editor's. The scenario Bill has proposed, if I understand it correctly, is this:

An editor encounters an ungrammatical and therefore ambiguous and therefore logically meaningless string of words (not technically a sentence). The editor moves a comma, rendering the string of words into a well-formed sentence that has an unambigous meaning. This, somehow, causes text that was formerly technically correct to become technically incorrect. Therefore, Bill and you conclude, the reader is better served by the unedited text.

Am I missing something?

Dick

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Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: What to look for in a technical editor: From: Bill Swallow
Re: What to look for in a technical editor: From: Bonnie Granat

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