"Peons of Praise"--The Author Said That

Yes.

Though I get what they meant!!!

How did you phrase it?

"responsive response."

Great thread, Boida. I missed it the first (and second) time around.

I did some proofreading on papers for friends who were in grad school. One girl would just take whatever the spellcheck offered as its best guess and then let me clean things up. My favorite error was the time she misspelled equilibrium so badly that spellcheck had suggested "equal Librium."

Noooo! You did it all wrong, woman! Why do you think you're living in the world's lawyer capital? I'll tell you why: You're living there so you can sue the hell out of your editor for pain and suffering and get $$$rich$$$ !!! It's the American Way -- how embarrassing that I, an immigrant, have to teach you this!

What did I change it to? Eliminated the noun. They were responsive and effective--or something like that.

Thomas, The pain and suffering when I'm proofreading isn't from stuff like this. This is annoying/almost amusing. When I'm proofreading, the pain and suffering comes from lack of subject/verb agreement! The damned thing was edited--by an actual editor. Why don't subjects and verbs agree?! Thanks for the lawsuit idea, you furriner, you. I like that.

Mac, Is there something wrong with Equal librium? Looks fine to me.

Human nature.

You should definitely start a book. It could be a bathroom reader or something.

And the title should be Title Waves.

Although, I "shutter to think" what other atrocities you've encountered.

I should have started collecting these much earlier. Don't have enough for a book. In fact, what you've seen here is pretty much all I have.

Love "Title Waves."

I have two more from the same book, same editor, same kind of stupidity.

"learning the lessons learned"

and

"the target has to be meaningful and targeted"

Thud.

It's Bush's memoirs, isn't it?

Those are great .
Ive got one that is somehwat less obvious but, it made me smile.
Its from one of my san engineers who wrote a report about designing a sewage system for our mining town in ARgentina

"When community , on-ground sewage systems fail, the results can only be described as Cataclysmic"

Now I cant recall the last time I saw a **** volcano.

Poor cjhsa has been gone long enough to be forgotten, I guess.

Deb, LOL

farmerman, The mind boggles.

I've been hired for a kind of unusual job. A book on English grammar, punctuation, and usage was written, edited, proofread, and published.

Someone was interested in adapting it for a foreign market but declined after going through it and finding a few mistakes. I've been asked to check the whole shmear to determine whether the few mistakes were the only ones or whether the book is riddled with 'em.

It's riddled.

Just found an entire chapter based on an incorrect premise. If the author, editor, or proofreader had looked in the dictionary (which is what I did), the chapter wouldn't be part of the book.

What a woild. Am I wasting my time looking stuff up and trying to make things right? You seem to get paid whether you do or you don't. Nope, not wasting my time. I couldn't do it any other way.

Don't know whether to snarl or sigh. Maybe I'll snighrl.

yeh but your good at what you do. I am forever indebt to editors who can turn my sloppy phrases and dumass analogies into readable sense.

When one loses the false "ownership" of a product, marvelous things can result. I find that the worst tech writers are some of my highly educated colleagues who will not get along with the editors.
In the USGS they have a style manual and thy employ very good eds who dont take prisoners with their publications. They even have strict rules about their map layouts and colors.

If they pay you good money, I'll smile.

Yeah, me too.

Boida, too bad they don't pay per error found!

Snighrling could catch on as a useful means of expression.