Useless Knowledge Needs Much Stricter Editing

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Useless Knowledge Needs Much Stricter Editing

By Aaron Baker
Jan. 7, 2005

Time for me to step out on a limb. If I am the first target (victem?) of this policy, then so be it. I have been following the Ron vs Judy articles with interest (well, following is too strong of a word in Judy's case, I have trouble figuring out what any two thoughts of hers are). And I must admit that I ramble myself (see above for example), but my rambling is generally trying to aviod stating my point because I fear it will offend.

I think Useless Knowledge needs much stricter editing, and as our beloved dictator (oops, I mean editor), only has so much time in a day, the logical place to start is enforced self- editing. Ron was on the right track trying to shame some of our worst writers into following the rules of English, or the related tongue, American, but did not realize that most of the worst offenders neither realize that they are writing badly, nor will they change their "masterpiece," on the mere word of thier inferiors who are bound by such silly rules. Only an iron fist can force such "artists," to submit to the laws of English.

If I were the editor, I would have three piles, good enough (reasonably self-edited articles that could go out as is), worth editing, and return to sender. Return to sender would be a courtesy action, as some of us do not save copies of our submissions, and if we were just told to fix the grammer, we would not be able to do anything but re-write from scratch. Therefore E-mailing us back allows us to work on the draft.

I realize this might, in the short run, reduce the quantity of articles, and thus temporarily hurt readership and revenue. But allowing some of these articles makes other writers on the site feel... lowered by association. As some unnamed authors have joined the site, many higher quality authors (who were on the site when my wife and I arrived) decided to leave. I don't know their reasons, but no one likes to wallow in mediocrity. Perhaps if the worst authors were either purged or sent home to learn how to write, better authors would step forward. Also, it might force lazy folks like me to do two drafts before submitting.

I also realize that I, as a non-editor who isn't doing the work and isn't volunteering to help, have very little right to criticise. But who on our site needs a right before putting in our two cents.

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Email Aaron Baker: aaror@writing.com

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