I recently approached a potential client by copying one page from his company’s website and giving him my suggestions for how he could improve the writing! He replied by saying “Oh, you’re one of those.”
Thank goodness, he meant this kindly. It turns out he used to be a publisher, and he understands what professional editors and writers are like! His comment made me chuckle because I am one of those. Yet because of this, I sometimes feel like I am tilting at windmills, just like my kindred spirit, Don Quixote.
To me, the English language is full of poetry, flexibility and power. When ideas are expressed clearly in writing, when they tell a compelling story full of color, emotion and movement, and when their syntax generally adheres to the accepted forms of spelling, grammar and punctuation, they take on a beautiful harmony that feels right, balanced, complete.
When the ideas lack focus, are confusingly-expressed and filled with errors, they jar my nerves and feel a little bit sad–like a rosebud that dies before it can blossom. Obviously, not everyone feels this way. The world is paying less and less attention to the niceties of written expression in its rush to just spit the words out and move on.
Yet here I stand, picking up my pen as Don Quixote once picked up his sword, tilting at the windmills of language, trying to save the world in my own small way!
