Unsafe at any speed
Cynthia Crossen’s “Book Lover” column in The Wall Street Journal reminds in an invaluable metaphor that “without strong editors, writers are like cars with accelerators but no brakes.”
Thank you, Editrix, for the citation.
About John McIntyre
John McIntyre, mild-mannered copy editor for a great metropolitan newspaper, has fussed over writers’ work at The Baltimore Sun since 1986. He is the director of its copy desk, an affiliate faculty member at Loyola College of Maryland, a former president of the American Copy Editors Society, a native of Kentucky, a graduate of Michigan State and Syracuse, and a moderate prescriptivist. If you are inspired by a spirit of contradiction, comment on his posts or write to him at john.mcintyre@baltsun.com.
Recent posts
Most Recent Comments
-
Evil surrounds us (9)
The Ridger wrote: How did I miss that Sara Vowell has... [more]
-
Strict, stricken, Strunk (4)
John McIntyre wrote: I surmise that Mr. Blanco may not h... [more]
-
How to pronounce it (38)
Wayne wrote: My favorite unexpected pronunciatio... [more]
-
Stirring up the animals (3)
Barbara Phillips Long wrote: People underrate their ancestors. P... [more]
-
Second-best is good enough (1)
John DM wrote: A lot of doctors recommend a bland ... [more]
-- ADVERTISEMENT --
Blogroll
- A Capital Idea
- Blogslot
- Common Sense Journalism
- Headsup: The Blog
- Words at Work
- The Editor's Desk
- Triangle Grammar Guide
- The Grammarphobia Blog
- Double-Tongued Dictionary
- Dictionary Evangelist
- American Copy Editors Society Discussion Board
- Testy Copy Editors discussion board
- Words to the Wise
- Watch Yer Language
- That's the Press, Baby
- Copy-Editing Corner
- Mike's Web Log
- Talk Wordy to Me
- Editrix
- The Word
Powered by MT Blogroll
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
Search and subscribe
Comments
I respectfully submit that this post needs an editor... Missing words?
Cynthia Crossen’s “Book Lover” column in The Wall Street Journal reminds in an invaluable metaphor that “without strong editors, writers are like cars with accelerators but no brakes.”
Posted by: Anonymous | November 20, 2008 4:43 PM
Cynthia Crossen’s “Book Lover” column in The Wall Street Journal reminds in an invaluable metaphor that “without strong editors, writers are like cars with accelerators but no brakes.”
That's a perfectly acceptable sentence as far as I'm concerned. "Reminds" doesn't require an additional complement.
Posted by: Bill Walderman | November 21, 2008 8:38 AM
No missing words. Just the missing intonation of the spoken words that sets off "in an invaluable metaphor" from the rest. Commas, sometimes, can help.
Posted by: Retired in Elkridge | November 21, 2008 9:17 AM
A friend recently reminded me that editors prefer to be writers' brakes, not their accelerators. Much easier to rein in than spur on.
Bloggers tend to operate sans editors out of necessity or penury.
Amateur critics (no offense to amateurs) suffer more than all: when they err, they make fools of themselves thrice, by erring, by presuming to criticize, by doing so without pay.
Aaaahahahahahahaha
Posted by: jl | November 22, 2008 8:54 AM
JL - penury? What happened to shallow thoughts? You're gonna need a hall pass to get back to D@L.
Posted by: Bourbon Girl | November 23, 2008 11:00 PM