A proofreading reader

[mustangj17]

The lessons from readers often stick more than those from your editors.

I haven't mixed up "fewer" and "less" since a reader called and pointed out my misuse in a headline 15 years ago.

Isn't that in the stylebook?

 

[MonsterLobster]

I don't mind readers pointing out little errors like that, but I hate how snarky they get when they do it and usually say, "Why doesn't this paper hire editors any more?" or "I guess you don't have to even graduate high school to be the editor of this rag!"

At my last job, every month we'd get a stack of papers from two or three months prior all marked up with red ink from some anonymous reader. She would often point out things that were, according to AP style, not mistakes or circle things she didn't understand, usually terms in a business story about technology or something like that. It was so frustrating because she would write some insulting, personalized notes in the margins and would note how frequently we continued to make the kinds of mistakes we knew weren't actually mistakes. And on top of all that she was taking two or three months to mark up the papers and send them back, a luxury we don't have on 30-minute deadlines.

Our executive editor somehow found out who she was - a retired high school English teacher to no one's surprise - and called her up to offer her a legitimate part-time copy editor position. She cursed him out for going out of his way to find out who she was and the notes stopped.

 

[HanSenSE]

When I worked in a community with a high concentration of retirees with not much else to do, I'd regularly commiserate with our news editor every time we got a letter or phone call going on and on about some abuse of the language the paper had done. Then came the day she announced she was retiring. One of the first things I told her was "promise me you'll find something to do so you won't become one of those people who picks apart the paper every day!"

 

[Bob Crotchet]

it's say her 'piece'

As long as we're getting into Mr. Language Person territory, there's actually some debate over that idiom. Some linguistics and etymology experts say a good case can be made for "peace," in that "speaking one's peace" (piping up) is the opposite of "holding one's peace" (staying quiet, as in "forever hold your peace").

So, it's really not quite so cut-and-dried ... but I agree that there's no ambiguity about "speaking one's piece," as in "stating your position" and moving on.

Where is this debate? My dictionary clearly says "speak one's piece: to vent one's views or opinions." There is no similar listing under "peace." The OED has a listing for "Speak one's piece" but doesn't have one for "Speak one's peace." The Chicago Tribune uses the two in its "Homonyms and Confusables" trivia quiz (http://www.chicagotribune.com/homonymquiz2,0,3252108.triviaquiz).

 

[jfs1000]

WTF. First off, the old bat lady was correct. I usually just thank people for reading. We have to stop pissing off our last remaining readers (this is a change from 3 weeks ago when I screamed at a little league dad and told him to grow up.).

 

[reformedhack]

it's say her 'piece'

As long as we're getting into Mr. Language Person territory, there's actually some debate over that idiom. Some linguistics and etymology experts say a good case can be made for "peace," in that "speaking one's peace" (piping up) is the opposite of "holding one's peace" (staying quiet, as in "forever hold your peace").

So, it's really not quite so cut-and-dried ... but I agree that there's no ambiguity about "speaking one's piece," as in "stating your position" and moving on.

Where is this debate? My dictionary clearly says "speak one's piece: to vent one's views or opinions." There is no similar listing under "peace." The OED has a listing for "Speak one's piece" but doesn't have one for "Speak one's peace." The Chicago Tribune uses the two in its "Homonyms and Confusables" trivia quiz (http://www.chicagotribune.com/homonymquiz2,0,3252108.triviaquiz).

http://www.google.com

There's no single repository for debate on this point. Obviously, some search results will be more authoritative than others, but this has been an ongoing conversation among language geeks for years. I even vaguely recall a William Safire "On Language" column about it more than 20 years ago, but don't hold me to that ... it could have been some other similar source. (I'm geeky that way. Word use and language fascinate me to no end.)

I'm just saying it ain't as definite as some say it is ... although, for the record, I prefer "piece" over "peace." (Make up your own joke here.)

 

[fossywriter8]

I'll stick with busses, thank you, especially since her written message asked me to check with Webster and Webster agreed with both of us. Maybe AP should check with Webster as well. We'll just let it go as our paper's style.
And it was a written message, not a call.
Also, I'd never heard of "buss" being a kiss until today.
For what it's worth, I also checked with Merriam-Webster, which also gave "busses" as an acceptable version.
M-W also had several other definitions for buss — a rugged square-sailed boat; two for kiss; bush; and a version of busk, which is to prepare or make ready — while listing "bussy" as a sweetheart.
Accordingly, I could buss to buss my bussy's buss on my buss.
:-*

 

[jfs1000]

I'll stick with busses, thank you, especially since her written message asked me to check with Webster and Webster agreed with both of us. Maybe AP should check with Webster as well. We'll just let it go as our paper's style.
And it was a written message, not a call.
Also, I'd never heard of "buss" being a kiss until today.
For what it's worth, I also checked with Merriam-Webster, which also gave "busses" as an acceptable version.
M-W also had several other definitions for buss — a rugged square-sailed boat; two for kiss; bush; and a version of busk, which is to prepare or make ready — while listing "bussy" as a sweetheart.
Accordingly, I could buss to buss my bussy's buss on my buss.
:-*

AP Stylebook is the bible. Your wrong in this case because the default style is AP in newspaper unless your paper makes an exception. AP stylebook is first reference. If there is no entry there, then you go to an American Dictionary. That's the rule. Your usage is incorrect in journalistic style. It's enough of an issue that AP made a style entry for it. So before you give yourself credit for sticking it to a reader, you should at least understand that your usage in a newspaper was incorrect.

Put it this way, if that appeared on the AP Copy Editing exam, and you used busses, it would have been a wrong answer.

 

[fossywriter8]

I'll stick with busses, thank you, especially since her written message asked me to check with Webster and Webster agreed with both of us. Maybe AP should check with Webster as well. We'll just let it go as our paper's style.
And it was a written message, not a call.
Also, I'd never heard of "buss" being a kiss until today.
For what it's worth, I also checked with Merriam-Webster, which also gave "busses" as an acceptable version.
M-W also had several other definitions for buss — a rugged square-sailed boat; two for kiss; bush; and a version of busk, which is to prepare or make ready — while listing "bussy" as a sweetheart.
Accordingly, I could buss to buss my bussy's buss on my buss.
:-*

AP Stylebook is the bible. Your wrong in this case because the default style is AP in newspaper unless your paper makes an exception. AP stylebook is first reference. If there is no entry there, then you go to an American Dictionary. That's the rule. You usage is incorrect in journalistic style. It's enough of an issue that AP made a style entry for it. So before you give yourself credit for sticking it to a reader, you should at least understand that your usage in a newspaper was incorrect.

Put it this way, if that appeared on the AP Copy Editing exam, and you used busses, it would have been a wrong answer.

I didn't "stick it" to the reader. As I posted several hours ago, I haven't responded yet to her written message to us. And I wouldn't "stick it" it her anyway. The most I would do is to write or call her back, thank her for her comment and mention that I did as she suggested and both dictionaries stated both versions were acceptable.
Our paper does make the exception so it is our paper's style. We do follow AP style in all but a few instances and this is one of them.

 

[Stitch]

I'll stick with busses, thank you, especially since her written message asked me to check with Webster and Webster agreed with both of us. Maybe AP should check with Webster as well. We'll just let it go as our paper's style.
And it was a written message, not a call.
Also, I'd never heard of "buss" being a kiss until today.
For what it's worth, I also checked with Merriam-Webster, which also gave "busses" as an acceptable version.
M-W also had several other definitions for buss — a rugged square-sailed boat; two for kiss; bush; and a version of busk, which is to prepare or make ready — while listing "bussy" as a sweetheart.
Accordingly, I could buss to buss my bussy's buss on my buss.
:-*

AP Stylebook is the bible. Your wrong in this case because the default style is AP in newspaper unless your paper makes an exception. AP stylebook is first reference. If there is no entry there, then you go to an American Dictionary. That's the rule. Your usage is incorrect in journalistic style. It's enough of an issue that AP made a style entry for it. So before you give yourself credit for sticking it to a reader, you should at least understand that your usage in a newspaper was incorrect.

Put it this way, if that appeared on the AP Copy Editing exam, and you used busses, it would have been a wrong answer.

If AP is the bible, what's NY Times' style?

 

[OrangeGrad]

Fossy, if buss is an exception because you've decided it is an exception because you don't want to be wrong to a reader, that's silly and pretty petty. If you're going to make an exception, there needs to be a better reason. Expect more letters if you stick with your exception.

 

[BillyT]

Webster is a character, not an actor.