Red Pen Obsession

One of many very good things my father did for me was to edit my papers for school, always with a red pen. He was ruthless: by the time I got them back, I felt like an ER doctor, trying desperately to piece back together a savagely wounded patient. But the lessons I learned were good ones, especially the importance and technique of expressing my thoughts exactly, and how a single misplaced comma or misspelling can disrupt the connection I build with my reader.

One response to this upbringing is that I feel a driving need to bestow this oft-dubious gift to others. So forgive me if I touch up your WikiSpelling? here, or add a comma there: my name is DavidSaff, and I have a RedPenObsession.

For reference, most editors use BLUE pens. Non-reprographic, and cooler on the eyes than the red pens used by teachers.

Some use of colors in some engineeringMarkups: (varies with client or consulting firm)

When multiple reviewers are involved and identity is important for follow-up, initials are added to significant markup points.

Alternatively (and, I believe, traditionally):

Of course, it's been a while since I did anything on paper. Schematic capture and VersionControl seems more, I don't know, modern? -- MartySchrader

Paraphrase of an old joke: "You may notice, while reading, that there are mistakes on this wiki. That's because we try to have something for everyone, and some people are always looking for mistakes."

How did the original joke go? (The joke has to refer to whatever it appears in. I originally saw it in a union newsletter.)

See HairyArm.

That's entirely in the spirit of the medium. I for one am happy to see someone fix my appauling spelling (although, I, like to think, my grammar is pretty well). -- KeithBraithwaite (...sorry Keith, I couldn't resist! -- AnthonyLander)

What? Did you change something? Looks just like what I typed. -- KeithBraithwaite

I, for one, appreciate RedPenObsession contributions as much as my confused text needs them. -- JimRussell

I amm allso huppy wen peeple fix my speeelin'. -- DavidCary

Not being a native english speaker, I am more comfortable posting on Wiki in the knowledge that at least my worst mistakes are usually corrected. Zis iz werry goot.

When editing a page, adding content or refactoring, please feel free to make spelling, grammar, and spelling corrections. It's the WikiWay.

Caution: be careful of VariantEnglishSpellings. (Wiki uses an AmericanEnglish dictionary, but our British friends have some funny ideas on what "correct English" is. ;-) ''[Is it our fault Americans can't spell properly? :o) C.]

David, I was inspired by this account of your father's RedPenObsession and mentioned this to my wife and one of our closest friends. They both looked at me as if I had a pretty strange idea of what the ideal father should be like, so I probably didn't say it exactly right. I've haven't tried it on my three children yet. -- RichardDrake

I think the RedPenObsession is a wonderous [wondrous] idea... I miss [regret! - sorry, but this one drives me crazy -- TomRossen] being out of school and *not* having people around willingly marking up my writing, especially considering I tend to be hard on my own writing as it is. I hope it's Wiki standard to note that you've corrected these things, however? -- anon.

Nope. Convention unclutters.

Of course, there's always the super-cool head grader's green pen! -- JohnMcGuinness? Grader of heads?? No, the main grader, the chief grader, the boss of the graders. The numero uno grader. "uber-grader"

Oh? Is this conventional somewhere? In the UK, voluntary use of green ink is widely considered a sign of insanity.

CharlesBabbage himself did extensive experimentation with ink and paper color combinations for his logarithm tables. I believe he actually ended up prefering green ink on green paper....

I guess I HaveThisPattern. I have been fixing spelling mistakes, but have resisted the urge to add a semicolon or two to signed contributions to make sentences more readable. Should I do so, or is that considered unethical?

By analogy with CollectiveCodeOwnership, which I believe in, I ought to put in those semicolons. -- ApoorvaMuralidhara

If a change improves the readability of a contribution while preserving its meaning, please make it. Wiki encourages adding value.

I have the RedPenObsession. What's funny is that I didn't used to have it, until I started WalkingTheWiki. Nowadays when I see a spelling error on some other Web pages I feel the urge to go in and correct them, and find to my great annoyance that I cannot do so. I have to send an e-mail to the Webmaster or something.

I wonder what the editors of these web pages think of receiving such e-mails: "Hey, you dropped a comma in the third sentence in the fourth paragraph; it should read..."

I don't know what they think, but they always seem to be grateful enough when I do the same thing.

Some Webmasters have reacted with hostility, though, like you're wasting their time.

I always attach two documents. The first is their page unchanged, the second is a corrected version. I further tell them how they can rapidly check that what I've done is sensible. That way they can spend minimal time on making the correction. They seem to like that and it's always been accepted.

In the interest of OnceAndOnlyOnce, I've extracted names from the above. Huh? (I.e., why?)

CategoryWikiMaintenance

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