RE: flashpoint of the week: editors and writers egos

["John Posada" <JPosada -at- isogon -dot- com>]

Hi, Bruce. I wrote my comment from the perspective of an editor who goes
out of their way to make a writer's life miserable, even though I know
nobody on THIS list would do that :-). 

They may do this by trying to enforce the most esoteric rules they can
find even if they haven't been in use for years, maybe performing an
editing level that isn't appropriate for the audience, or any number of
other actions (is there such as thing as an "angry pen"?.

However, an editor's job is to create a correct deliverable regardless
of the quality level of the writer. To do this, editing has to be
applied even handed, regardless of the level of the writer. What's wrong
is wrong, regardless of whether your writer has 1 year experience or 12
years.

I would never consider phrasing it with "This stinks on ice because it
has a faulty pronoun reference", so that possibility never entered my
mind. 

However, I assume you are not taking the position that if a writer is
more advanced, edit their material to a higher standard than a novice
writer, because I think we should both agree that you aren't editing to
the standards for the writer, but for the audience.

Quoting John Posada <JPosada -at- isogon -dot- com>:

> If you are editing a writer's content from anywhere other than an 
> objective position, then all bets are off and you deserve all the 
> grief and headaches that the writers can bestow on you

There's a difference between giving some consideration to the writer and
holding back on the criticism - especially when it's to your benefit to
show consideration, and/or when you're not dealing with professional
writers.


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