Oh, I know your type, writer. You're a real whiz with grammar, know all the punctuation rules, you even know a couple of those cool proofreader marks. You've often said to yourself (particularly after being raked over the editing coals), Pooh! I could do that.
And I know this, writer, because I am that writer.
But after spending about 20 minutes taking the Society for Editors and Proofreaders Self Test, I threw in the red pen. Not so much because I didn't know what was what, proofreading-wise (though I'm not ruling out that possibilty). It was more of an eyes-glazing-over and not knowing what was what until my head slammed into the laptop and woke me up.
For crying out loud, how many times was I going to have to correct the same &*^% page?
Turns out, proofreading and editing require a ton of patience, an attention to detail, and the singular ability to find every stinking thing wrong on the page. Who knew?
Anyway, I think I'll just stick to being a writer. But you all go right ahead and give it a go.
(P.S. I think I found this link on my Writing World newsletter--you should give this site a go the next time you're looking for writing info. And to all those hard-working editors/proofreaders, I'm very, very sorry. I take all those Poohs! back.)
