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Dilemma of an Editor

I have gone through many online articles, which may be a science-related article or the other articles available on political, social, or retail websites. I rarely find an article free of any grammatical error. For editors, there are very few things more annoying than a glaring grammar error in any piece of writing, and they love to point out even a misplaced apostrophe as a way to challenge the writer’s intellect, learning, or morality.

Actually, as lovers of language, editors have a usual predisposition to fix these errors. How do we ignore, for example, with statements that nip our nose?

She likes her to.

Its a tiring day.

Seriously?!

But, at the same time, it’s just immoral to assume that anybody who types your when they mean you’re doesn’t know the variance. In any case, is it right to point it out in a rude, public manner? I know that we are human. And why shouldn’t we make a mistake? At many university presses, a pool of editors makes money only by finding typos and grammar mistakes in books and manuscripts, and no one thinks those writers are uninformed or immoral.

However, I admit that I take a slight wicked pleasure when a grammar shamer commits a typo. I also feel that if we adore language, we should try to preserve it and remove the weed-like errors before they spread. Not to forget that shame is an armament, not a training tool. Using shame in the setting of “assisting” another writer creates a collapse in communication and should be avoided.

As an editor, I would suggest you to write well. Retort correctly. Use the right capital letters in your articles, use commas properly in your sentences, and think twice about the apostrophes in your articles. Remember, every time you make a typo, the errorists win.

And editors! You have miffed no one in the course, and your karma is clean. Do what you love to do.

Amit Koushik

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