Use of the word "very"

You know what I really hate? Deskers who don't refer to themselves as deskers. I get tired of the folks who, when meeting someone and telling him what they do for a living, puff up and say, "I'm an editor at the Podunk News." They seem quite content to leave the impression that they're a big-time decision maker and boss, rather than a handler of copy. Or, as Some Guy says, a "desker."

Lot of these same folks will thrown down over an extraneous "that" or "now" but won't hesitate to rely on a vague label for their jobs, if it makes them feel a little less clerk-like. (As for you copy editors who are proud of it and shout it from rooftops, you go, boys and girls! And thanks for saving my copy time and again!)

 

How's that for a backhanded compliment?

 

I only do that to impress the ladies, Joe.

 

Well of course. Why do you think I'm so bitter about it?

 

But of course. Get yerself a green eyeshade. You may be able to pass as a "desker."

 

Very clever.

 

touche, good sir. (yet you still understood what i was saying... hmm.)

to good doctor: did you just type "fucking" to me? ouch. very ouch.

and imjustagirl, i didn't read this thread and then all of a sudden think copy editors were a bunch of weirdos. i don't think they're weird at all. and i realize the importance of having people dedicated to getting every single little thing correct. i appreciate someone who can do what i can't.

one thing i can't is take hardly noticeable style debates personally. since i know there are people who can (from personal experience and not from reading this site, your posts or anyone else's), i don't need you telling me that you're not one of them.

i guess i just swung and missed on this one. i'll take what i thought to be a legit question elsewhere.

 

Why do some people care so deeply about a "very" here and a "that" there? You really want an answer, JD?

Without trying to delineate the obsessives you describe, and their various peeves and crotchets, simply this: Language matters. And as writers and editors, it should matter to us most of all.

So yes, I understood what you were saying in the could/couldn't example - but I also understood that what you wrote means the opposite of what you intended.

 

"Hey copy desk people, why are you such freaks?"...you expect this to be considered a "legit question"?

 

This sort of idiotic attitude is what makes copy editors testy. Our job is to be a perfectionist where language is considered. I'm sooooo sorry you can't handle people doing their job. : : :

A legit question? Did you smoke crack before you wrote that? Because that's the level of lunacy displayed in the post.

 

Au contraire.

I would be happy to be included in a group with 90 percent of the people on this thread. I may not agree with everyone all the time, but I respect nearly all of them. I was not trying to distance, merely trying to explain the language chosen.

Have a very good day.

 

Nearly all of them, IJAG? :-\ :'(