(no subject)

[jinian]

Y'know how sometimes the thing you're editing is so awful that you can't decide whether you're profoundly grateful that you're able to fix it up or despondent at having ever seen such an awful piece of writing?

Our business plan.

Argh.

Comments

[jinian.livejournal.com]

The prize so far: "the idea of 'success breads success'"

And then deep-fries it! Mmmm, tasty success.

can I get that to go?

[rubricity.livejournal.com]

There's nothing tastier than breaded success for dinner.

Re: can I get that to go?

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the ranch dressing. You've gotta dip breaded deep-fried success in ranch dressing for maximum flavor. :)

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

I will take a large order of beer-battered success and a side of steak fries.

Mmmm steak fries.

[rosefox]

ROFL! Oh yes, I've had days (and articles) like that. This whole thread had me laughing so hard it hurt. Thank you!

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I need a concise symbol to say "if you have a comma here, you also need one over here."

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

Does cramming a copy of Strunk and White forcefully into someone's eye count as concise?

Alternately, fill in the matching comma, or strike the one that's there. I'd recommend filling them in whenever possible, but I'm a big fan of punctuation. Go semicolon! Hooray em-dash!

[elynne.livejournal.com]

Does cramming a copy of Strunk and White forcefully into someone's eye count as concise?

*BWA-hahahahahaaaa*!! *sniff* :D

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I'm filling them in, but sometimes they don't do what I recommend. The person in charge of the document is a punctuation minimalist, so I like to make it as likely as possible that she'll do something correct.

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

I recommend a shock collar. It's much easier on the keyboard (and the person being re-educated) than pulling fingernails.

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

You could also look here (http://www.bartleby.com/61/charts/A4proof.html), if you like that sort of thing (beware of ad popunders). I also found this (http://www.wku.edu/~kuhlenschmidt/proofread.htm), which is interesting.

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm always torn between wanting to cry as my language is methodically abused by these people, and gratitude that no one outside the company will read the first draft.

The company I used to work for has a website that makes me near-hysterical. Among other things, they lack an understanding of serial commas and hyphenated adjectives.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I am happy/torn about being able to make changes to the web site now. I would just be happy, because I can make stealth changes, but with the web it's not just the serial commas and hyphenated adjectives... it's also Javascript. *shudder*

the joys of dyslexia

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

I keep misreading 'Our business plan' as 'Our business pain'. Though perhaps it's not so much dyslexia as awful, awful clarity.

Re: the joys of dyslexia

[jinian.livejournal.com]

It's their plan and my pain, so that seems fair enough.

I did have to put a note reading "can't we just 'use' sometimes?" after about the fifth time I saw "utilized" in a paragraph, and I have been reduced to underlining an entire sentence and writing "what?" next to it a few times. Can't believe it's this bad.

my favourite proofreader's mark

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

AWK

Re: my favourite proofreader's mark

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I have used that a few times on this one. I think WTF needs to be better accepted as a proofreader's mark, because that would have come in very handy.

Re: my favourite proofreader's mark

[torquemada.livejournal.com]

It's too bad there isn't an east-to-draw symbol for a crackpipe.