The lowly copy editor

Dog8Cats · Feb 17, 2012

Versatile said:

Let me just say that JUST SAY IT I am the child of an early feminist. When it came time to sign up for typing in high school, my mother DANGLING MODIFIER, UNLESS YOUR MOTHER WAS SIGNING UP FOR TYPING IN HIGH SCHOOL counseled me not to take the class, observing from her own experience that “men will hire you based on how fast you type.” MAKES NO SENSE; YOU DIDN'T WANT TO BE HIRED? What they would hire me for if I didn’t know how to type, neither of us apparently considered. But I happily took an extra art class or whatever at the time and eventually adopted a style using three fingers, COLON, UNLESS YOU'RE SAYING YOU USED SIX FINGERS left forefinger to do most of the typing, a thumb to space and right forefinger to hit the shift key. And I’ve written TYPED a couple of books using those three fingers, okay? So what the hell, right?

Except here at the newspaper I noticed right away that not only could all of my colleagues type at warp speed with BY USING, UNLESS THEY'RE ABLE TO TYPE AT "WARP SPEED" USING ONE FINGER AT A TIME WITH ANY OF THEIR EIGHT FINGERS all of their fingers, they also knew a billion keyboard shortcuts, like apple-shift-control-6 (but the 6 on the side of the keyboard IT'S CALLED A FUCKING NUMERIC KEYPAD, not the top).

Thanks for playing.
Click to expand...

No snark here, but we need an ALSO in the "not only ... but they ALSO knew" construction, right?

BDC99 · Feb 17, 2012

And I'd also like a word with Robin Sterns. Sounds to me like she thought she knew everything already and that she was above these young punks, and my reading of that piece tells me that copy editing is a tough fucking job and that she couldn't handle it. She doesn't work well when she's rushed! Perfect.

Versatile · Feb 17, 2012

Dog8Cats said:

Versatile said:

Let me just say that JUST SAY IT I am the child of an early feminist. When it came time to sign up for typing in high school, my mother DANGLING MODIFIER, UNLESS YOUR MOTHER WAS SIGNING UP FOR TYPING IN HIGH SCHOOL counseled me not to take the class, observing from her own experience that “men will hire you based on how fast you type.” MAKES NO SENSE; YOU DIDN'T WANT TO BE HIRED? What they would hire me for if I didn’t know how to type, neither of us apparently considered. But I happily took an extra art class or whatever at the time and eventually adopted a style using three fingers, COLON, UNLESS YOU'RE SAYING YOU USED SIX FINGERS left forefinger to do most of the typing, a thumb to space and right forefinger to hit the shift key. And I’ve written TYPED a couple of books using those three fingers, okay? So what the hell, right?

Except here at the newspaper I noticed right away that not only could all of my colleagues type at warp speed with BY USING, UNLESS THEY'RE ABLE TO TYPE AT "WARP SPEED" USING ONE FINGER AT A TIME WITH ANY OF THEIR EIGHT FINGERS all of their fingers, they also knew a billion keyboard shortcuts, like apple-shift-control-6 (but the 6 on the side of the keyboard IT'S CALLED A FUCKING NUMERIC KEYPAD, not the top).

Thanks for playing.
Click to expand...

No snark here, but we need an ALSO in the "not only ... but they ALSO knew" construction, right?
Click to expand...

There is an "also," though it's actually extraneous.

Dog8Cats · Feb 17, 2012

Versatile said:

Dog8Cats said:

Versatile said:

Let me just say that JUST SAY IT I am the child of an early feminist. When it came time to sign up for typing in high school, my mother DANGLING MODIFIER, UNLESS YOUR MOTHER WAS SIGNING UP FOR TYPING IN HIGH SCHOOL counseled me not to take the class, observing from her own experience that men will hire you based on how fast you type. MAKES NO SENSE; YOU DIDN'T WANT TO BE HIRED? What they would hire me for if I didnt know how to type, neither of us apparently considered. But I happily took an extra art class or whatever at the time and eventually adopted a style using three fingers, COLON, UNLESS YOU'RE SAYING YOU USED SIX FINGERS left forefinger to do most of the typing, a thumb to space and right forefinger to hit the shift key. And Ive written TYPED a couple of books using those three fingers, okay? So what the hell, right?

Except here at the newspaper I noticed right away that not only could all of my colleagues type at warp speed with BY USING, UNLESS THEY'RE ABLE TO TYPE AT "WARP SPEED" USING ONE FINGER AT A TIME WITH ANY OF THEIR EIGHT FINGERS all of their fingers, they also knew a billion keyboard shortcuts, like apple-shift-control-6 (but the 6 on the side of the keyboard IT'S CALLED A FUCKING NUMERIC KEYPAD, not the top).

Thanks for playing.
Click to expand...

No snark here, but we need an ALSO in the "not only ... but they ALSO knew" construction, right?
Click to expand...

There is an "also," though it's actually extraneous.
Click to expand...

My bad. Meant that it needs a BUT to complete the BUT ALSO required with the NOT ONLY.

Versatile · Feb 17, 2012

Yes, you're right. That particular sentence structure is sloppy in general at 48 words, but the conjunction is necessary to make it grammatically correct.

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The lowly copy editor

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The lowly copy editor

Dog8Cats Well-Known Member

BDC99 Well-Known Member

Versatile Active Member

Dog8Cats Well-Known Member

Versatile Active Member

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