And here we all are

Red Pen: Retired

Not really, not when I still feel the urge to correct posts on Facebook and tell public speakers that their grammar needs work, not when I’m still working with technologists and scientists on their publications. I won’t miss grading papers, nor do I miss the pressures of the bureaucracy. I don’t miss students who think that because they paid tuition that they are entitled to my time, at their convenience, that they are entitled to a particular grade or to any and all help, including rewriting their papers for them.

I will miss other students, the ones who failed and accepted responsibility for it, coming back to do it right this time, the ones who worked harder than they ever have in their life and were grateful for the B, the ones who have been told they would never be able to write and learned that they can, and the ones who are spectacular writers, better than I will ever be.

I will miss my colleagues, who listened and commiserated when I was tired and discouraged, bored to tears writing the same comment on every blasted paper, who offered suggestions, changes, improvements to my lectures, who appreciated that while we all had the same goals, we could all get to those goals in different ways, by emphasizing different strategies of writing.

I am looking forward to late summer when all my former colleagues are making their way back to the classroom to try to get students to understand that good writing is essential to their careers, to their ability to think clearly and critically, even to living a fulfilling life.

But I don’t think I’m finished. Every time I read a newspaper article with errors in it, every time I see a Facebook entry that is so unclear that I can only wince, every time I get an article from a scientist who wants help getting it into publishable condition, then I know that people need advice and help, and I know that some people actually want to know, want to learn. They aren’t college students, but they realize they still have a lot to learn. And I have a lot to teach.

So I’m starting this blog. My motivation was to write as clearly and succinctly as I can lessons that I give to people whose writing I edit. Having given lessons to innumerable people over the years, I have some of those lessons down pat. This is not about creative writing; this is for people who have information that other people need; this is about communicating that information so that readers can use it.