ABOUT

Hello!

So, why Raspberry? 

Well, I do like raspberries, and I also like the colour called raspberry, but it's mostly because I once had an argument with a grocer that there should be a "p" in his rasberry signage. I did not win that argument; in fact, I fled in terror of his wrath. Really.

 

It was from this not-very-uplifting interaction that I learned a few things about life generally, things I think, as an editor, I need to keep in mind as I'm correcting others' work. Other than (obviously) learning not to fight with grocers, I also I figured out that language and written expressions of meaning are entangled with the selves that make them. They are, aren't they? What we say and write is about us. Joyously, I also learned that, if I am going to correct someone's work, I should get paid per word, and have a prior agreement to do so, in order that the parameters are perfectly crystalline to both parties.

​

I also learned that correcting people is Not Fun; it can inadvertently style you as a person who thinks they are Superior. It's not difficult to see how the structure of our early life (with parents, teachers, and other adults telling us what to do and having power to make us do it) creates a framework for the Correctors to be Correct and the Correctees to be Corrected. If it sounds naive and unformed, you might be surprised how often my supposedly-Superior self has to laugh this positioning off in my regular life (rather than correct it, of course).

 

When I work on a document, my logic is that people have reasons for the things that they do, and this doing includes what they say and what they write. In terms of editing, this means that when I get their work and it's not (yet) quite clear enough what they mean, or when their commas are not doing the work commas are designed to do, it's my job to find the reasons that motivated them to choose those meanings before I begin making recommendations for change.  So, I ask a lot of questions of my clients and collaborate daily with them over their text. (If you were hoping I'd give you my rates in this About, click the Contact page now.)

 

Despite the need to present perfect work (because I am an "Immutably Correct Corrector"), I can't promise everything I write here will always be totally correct. This is not because I'm lazy or bad at my work, it's because, as Oscar Wilde famously noted, "life is too important to be taken seriously".

​

This blog is organised around a few regular features. I hope you will find them interesting, and forgive me that I don't see the need to be too serious about it all. Most of language blows away in the inexorable dynamic of time, right? If I manage to inform you, that's great; I'd rather inspire you, though, but if I can't manage to do that, I hope you'll get a laugh, at least.

​

Have a beautiful day!