Goobery Writer Things
I've been editing too long. How do I know this?
Last night, Sam was working on a powerpoint presentation for his school. I don't know why they insist on using powerpoint, but the insistance was so strong that he had to break down and go buy a copy. Anyway, he's discussing one of the written bits in the presentation, which said something like "Bob Smith's (I can't remember the guy's name) philosophy was about discipline."
It was like, I kid you not, someone had run their fingernails over chalkboard. I had to choke back the words: "NO! You used the past tense of 'to be' AND YOU USED ABOUT, WHICH IS TOTALLY NON-DESCRIPTIVE! You should write it as 'Discipline makes up the core of Bob Smith's philosophy.'! This puts the emphasis on what you want to emphesise (discipline) by putting it in the front end of the thought, gets rid of 'was', and gets rid of 'about', which is such a freaking blah word!"
It seriously took all my willpower not to say this. I did keep my mouth shut, though -- I knew that it would have been really freaking obnoxious if I'd spoken up. But the point is that I have gotten to the point where I want to edit other people's crummy powerpoint things that THEY don't even care that much about not for correctness or for grammar, but for more interesting or concise words.
I'm gonna go and stick my head in a hole somewhere.
Last night, Sam was working on a powerpoint presentation for his school. I don't know why they insist on using powerpoint, but the insistance was so strong that he had to break down and go buy a copy. Anyway, he's discussing one of the written bits in the presentation, which said something like "Bob Smith's (I can't remember the guy's name) philosophy was about discipline."
It was like, I kid you not, someone had run their fingernails over chalkboard. I had to choke back the words: "NO! You used the past tense of 'to be' AND YOU USED ABOUT, WHICH IS TOTALLY NON-DESCRIPTIVE! You should write it as 'Discipline makes up the core of Bob Smith's philosophy.'! This puts the emphasis on what you want to emphesise (discipline) by putting it in the front end of the thought, gets rid of 'was', and gets rid of 'about', which is such a freaking blah word!"
It seriously took all my willpower not to say this. I did keep my mouth shut, though -- I knew that it would have been really freaking obnoxious if I'd spoken up. But the point is that I have gotten to the point where I want to edit other people's crummy powerpoint things that THEY don't even care that much about not for correctness or for grammar, but for more interesting or concise words.
I'm gonna go and stick my head in a hole somewhere.