EditorI used this hashtag in a tweet about a perennial editorial irritant and figured I’d make it into a one-framer:
Once I made the blank, I immediately found other uses for it—recurring #EditorProblems that probably don’t merit their own strip:
Play along! Here’s a blank:
Query subject-matter experts about a terminological issue.
Set off an argument among the SMEs about your term.
Find the same unique-to-the-author acronym used for more than one noun phrase. Index it anyway, with the multiple targets.
Query author about use of a term to define itself. Receive back a Wikipedia definition in its place.
Spend twenty minutes carefully crafting a query about an incomprehensible passage. Discover that you now understand the passage and can simply edit it.
Sandra–in my world (software) there’s actually a name for the phenomenon you mention: rubber duck debugging. There is of course a Wikipedia article about it.
(Sorry to hijack this otherwise focused commentary. 🙂 )
Mike – Thanks for the “rubber duck” information. I often have to force myself not to correct a usage or grammar issue that intuitively seems wrong until I can explain to myself why it is an error. Explaining it to the author in plain English is its own can of worms.
Oh, this one, yes, Sandra!
Of course, really, that’s not a problem but a win. But, the perfectly crafted, clear yet tactful query that gets trashed! I should have a bunch of wee picture frames just to honour them in.
Ed’A
Frames: yes! 😉 (Full disclosure: I have been known to save some of these queries, and even to find uses for them.)
Improve a couple of awkward phrases.
Discover that you’ve de-paraphrased a piece of plagiarism.
Accept pedestrian project with so-so pay that fills up the next two months.
Get offered super-fun, high-paying project the next day.