Grammar Guru

[rpeate]

There is a certain freelance editor on Facebook who does very well, and good for him. He lives off his editing. He thinks he is a great editor, and others think he is a great editor. I do not think he is a great editor. I own a book he edited, and I found so many errors in it I could hardly believe someone paid him to edit it. He and I

Comments

[singofmyself]

I agree with your assessment. My grammar would be wonderful if I could only remember the rules on all of the points. I struggle when I write out such things.

But then again, I'm not an editor, so my job isn't at stake. :)

[rpeate]

Neither is his, because his clients DON'T KNOW SHIT. It's the same with photography--the public doesn't know a good "eye" when it sees one.

The whole World remains mad.

[whatwouldruthdo]

That's bad. It's hard to believe he's making a living doing that work.

[rpeate]

He's so successful he gets interviewed about it! I feel as if (not LIKE) I've taken crazy pills! This guy DEFENDS using "less" instead of "fewer"!!!!!!

[perdita_dream]

I know I use too many commas in my writing but this just made me cringe. I don't think it would be pleasant to read something this guy wrote.

[glorafiyed]

great post. :)

[cruiser]

I'm in firm agreement with you on numbers 1, 4, 6, and 8. For number 7, I agree, but there are differing standards (but all of them agree that there should be a space afterwards - the presence or absence of other spaces vary).

With regard to 2 & 3, I think that a reasonable argument could be made that "Author [sic] Jamie McGuire" and Beautiful Disaster are parenthetical expressions, rather than restrictive clauses. However, if one were to make that argument, there needs to be a comma after Beautiful Disaster (and of course, italicizing the title eliminates any questions about whether the comma should be inside or outside the quotes.

For number 5, I don't have a problem with saying "unbelievably successful novel" - if he's as bad an editor as you're saying, it does strain credulity that the novel was successful.

It's worth noting, however, that critiquing his editing ability based on something he has written isn't necessarily fair. There's a difference between writing and editing. He should either edit his blog himself or have

[rpeate]

I love you, BOB!!, and I hope someday you respond to my play similarly.