editing and tea...

[deird1]

I’ve become increasingly familiar with the different styles of editing that you need for different occasions – depending on why the writer in question needs an editor.

For instance:

The most important thing think about when you making a cup of the tea is flavour and strength. Flavour of tea, such as Earl Grey or English Breakfast, should chosen to suit the occasions.

Diagnosis: You’re a reasonable writer, but it’s possible that English is not your first language. You need a picky editor with a book on grammar close at hand.

You need to think about milk. It should go in before the hot water does.
Some people use plastic cups, or polystyrene, but it’s better to use a mug.
Once you’ve made a cuppa, settle down in your favourite chair with a book and a muffin.
If you put the milk in afterwards, it’s easier to see how milkier it will get.
Use tea leaves instead of teabags.
Putting milk in first will stop it from scalding.

Diagnosis: You write things down in the order they occur to you, rather than a logical reading order. You need a creative editor with a handy pair of scissors.

Tee is a grate drink for settling thee nervous. Originally form china, its spread awl over the world and is know drunk buy millions of people everyday.

Diagnosis: You are relying far too much on spellcheck. You need an editor with a large vocabulary and vast realms of patience.

When given the opportunity to commence making a cup of tea, it is important to consider several different requirements, addressing each in turn to ensure a decision-making process that encompasses all of these, putting equal emphasis onto every point that requires it. The first is to address whether to decide to make use of teabags, or to decide to invest in a range of potential options of various tea leaf varieties.

Diagnosis: You have spent too much time writing for the government. You need to be hit over the head with a large mallet.

Comments

[redsixwing]

Mm. I recognize that fourth writing style.

I have done too much writing for various corporate functions.

Bring on the mallet. orz

[deird1]

I'm dealing with it this morning...

I just want to hand the document back and say "Look, I'm aware that noun phrases are wonderful ways to turn multiple words into a noun. But when you have twenty-three words making up a single noun, you've taken the whole thing too far."

[redsixwing]

That is definitely too much noun.

[speaker_to_customers]

None of those people can make a decent cup of tea. The tea goes in first.

The reason why some people put the milk in first dates back to the time when only the rich could afford good quality china. The poor put the milk in first so that the hot tea didn't cause the cup to crack; the rich didn't have to worry about that happening and so could put the tea in first, which gives the best flavour.

The last one didn't say 'government' to me. It said 'corporate middle management'. The tea will no doubt be served at a meeting to discuss the company's mission statement.

[deird1]

Agreed. I tried putting the milk in first, a couple of times, just to see what the difference was. It just ended up with me getting my milk:tea ratio all wrong...

[bobthemole]

I am going to print this out and stick it on my desk, if that's alright with you.

I've recently been grading essays written by engineering undergraduates, and they manage to hit all of your examples simultaneously. Plus, they're writing about scientific research that I'm not always familiar with, so there's the added challenge of deciphering what they originally meant to say.

The essays where they don't know what they're talking about and are just throwing jargon in hopes it will stick? Priceless.

[deird1]

Woo! I'm in print!


Plus, they're writing about scientific research that I'm not always familiar with, so there's the added challenge of deciphering what they originally meant to say.

*nods* It gets rather irritating when you have to schedule meetings just to ask people what the heck they were trying to write...

[jl-in-the-lane.livejournal.com]

I reckon you need to add two paagraphs: one in which the writer is clearly just attempting to increase the word count, and one in which they are plagiarising, or attempting not to plagiarise very awkwardly.

[deird1]

So far I haven't come across either of those...

[beer_good_foamy]

Milk? In tea?

That's as weird as... I dunno, sugar in coffee.

Bizarre.

[velvetwhip]

*cracks up*


Gabrielle

[a2zmom]

Your last diagnosis cracked me up. And it's not just the government but big corporations also.

[slaymesoftly]

ROFLMAO

[snowpuppies]

Hee!



and yet, so sad...

[rahirah]

:dodges mallet:

[icarus]

Diagnosis: You have spent too much time writing for the government. You need to be hit over the head with a large mallet.

LOL!

[curiouswombat]

You need to be hit over the head with a large mallet.

Can we all join in?

[pthalo]

A lot of editing I do is for non native speakers of English. One thing that I find fun -- which doesn't come as often as I'd like because most anyone I'd be editing for is a native speaker of Hungarian and I know that -- is to try to guess their native language by the types of errors they make.

Hungarian is a topic-comment language (like ASL), in which you usually start a sentence with some old bit of information and then you add the new information at the end. And so in ordinary speech you either say "As for John, he likes apples" or "As for apples, John likes them" or "As for liking things, don't get John started about apples." You can just say John likes apples, but usually you're stressing some part of it: we've been talking about John and the new thing I want to add about him is that he likes Apples. Or we've been talking about apples and the new thing I want to add about apples is that John likes them.

Hungarians who learn English discover that English has a method of doing this: As for John, he likes apples. But they don't really appreciate how marked a structure this is in English, how rarely we use this structure, that a native speaker of English would be more likely to say: John likes apples, or John likes apples, or John likes apples. As such, when you read through something a Hungarian has written, you'll see this fronting frequently, almost in every sentence. I'll try to translate your example about tea into Hunglish for you:

The flavour and the strength are the most important aspects of the making a cup of tea. As for the flavour of the tea, such as the Earl Grey or the English Breakfast, it is according to the situation that we are choosing it.

Some people use the plastic glasses, or polystyrene, but the mug is the best for the drinking of tea. To prevent the milk going to sleep, we put in before the hot water, but if we put it in after it will to make it easier to see how milky it will get. Use the loose tea instead of the teabags. The tea has a good effect for calming the nerves. Once the tea is ready, sit down into your favourite chair with a book and a muffin.

As for the origins of the tea, it was originally made in China, but it was spreading all over the world and millions of people are drinking it everyday.