Jill E. Mazzetta | Editor, Writer, Proofreader

I love when Word gets creative with the accents! That said, I sometimes deliberately choose a UK voice when reading back a text I've edited in UK English just in case it can help me catch a US-ism. (And the UK voices are among the nicest read-aloud voices they offer, imo 😊)

Oh, this is excellent! Thanks so much for putting this together.

Congratulations! Sounds like a super interesting subject, and with old-school markup to boot. I miss marking up paper ❤️

Loving the AI statement too! Looks like a win all around.

Beautiful! Thailand has been on my list forever--can't wait to go when I get the chance. (And yes, the "old town" areas are always the best.) 😍

I once sat in on a textiles and hand-sewing panel at a convention I attended. I'd never tried to sew a single inch before that and I still haven't, but I still have the notes I furiously jotted down and they've actually come in handy years later. You will thoroughly enjoy it, I'm sure!

I remember this story too! It's permanently stuck in my brain from the early days of the war. She is a true inspiration. Nothing but respect. 💛💙

Agh, I'm an avid inbox-zero-er too and the last 2-4 emails are always the hardest. And yes, my own "to read" PDF dumping ground is better left unmentioned 😱

Beautiful! And wow, that snowflake is just too perfect. 😍

Back at it after a long and lovely holiday break. Happy Monday and happy 2025! 🎇 #amediting #amwriting #academicediting

And thank you for your video! Storytelling is the way forward 🫶

Fully agreed--and I'll just add that strong storytelling is indispensable no matter what you're writing. Everything from fiction novels to dissertations to white papers benefits from a strong narrative structure. That doesn't mean "making up stories"--it means contextualizing and connecting.

Ah, I've always wondered what I'd do if I ran across something that hit one of my phobias. I can largely avoid this as I don't edit fiction, but some of the NGO stuff I've worked on has come pretty close.

Today I'm between projects, so I'm planning out the rest of my December into early January.

German university bureaucracy is a very special kind of nightmare (and I've been through it as a student, an hourly employee, and a freelancer by now). 🫡

Yup, been there. I've even had colleagues form the question as "I think it should be X but my editor is saying Y. Why is my editor wrong?" I do enjoy the chance to teach people about the nuance of the job, tho! If the entirety of the job was looking stuff up in manuals, you wouldn't have to ask. ;)

😂 That was just one of many unappetizing things about that project... mostly figuratively, of course. It wasn't the only literally unappetizing one either, but at least those were unintentional.

Okay, so how sure are you that that missing word was unintentional? 🌚

All kidding aside, I love catches like these. I once worked with a policy paper that apparently advised its readers to eat manure. Because, you know, sustainability.

Oh, yikes. That definitely doesn't sound like a typical editing and publishing crowd 😩 And yeah, I'm surprised that they think that kind of "content" is appropriate for LI... the hustlebros at least still seem invested in keeping up a veneer of professionalism. Doesn't make it acceptable, of course.

I try to (civilly) call it out or push back when I see it. I figure that if anyone has a problem with it, best to flush that out up front. And I wouldn't want their money anyways ✌️

Ugh. I'm trying to be more present on LI too and while I haven't come across anything super blatant yet, I've definitely seen my share of the dogwhistle-y crap. Usually it's tangled up with the toxic hustlebro nonsense too.

I love arguing about punctuation so much that I've monetized it! ;) Unfortunately I'm not in the US, though. Best of luck filling the position 🫶

The eternal struggle. 😭

Congrats! 🎉

I feel like this after a long project too! I thought I was the only one. I'm sorry to hear you're in the middle of it right now, and may the next one come along soon (and congrats, of course)!

I'm glad it's not just me! I misread polish/Polish a lot, too 🫣 Sleep deprivation notwithstanding, I'm usually too caffeinated when this happens for that to be an excuse.

By the way, I also use iZotope (the audio software being advertised) and it does indeed work magic. No false advertising here.

I've also seen folks older than me use exclamation points to convey anger (in, e.g., very tense and aggressive emails), and they *can* be quite threatening... but if and only if the person behind them is pretty formidable themselves. 😜

Depends on context, of course, but for general back-and-forth communication, I'd say the period. I use exclamation points to sound friendly/eager/engaged, and I also frequently see them used that way by others in my generation (Millennial).

Oh yikes, me too. They literally ran out of English classes for me to take. 🙈 I had to pad my day with multiple study halls, which technically wasn't allowed but by that point there was no other way to keep me in the building for the legally mandated time.

I only use the capslock if I'm going to type at least two consecutive caps. I learned on electric typewriters, which I'm pretty sure had shift keys.

That said, I type best on typewriters, so much so that I never stopped using mechanical keyboards. So maybe that answers your question another way? 😅

My grandma did this for me too, with identical results. Forever grateful. ❤️

Hello Bluesky! I never even had a Twitter, but I guess there's no time like the present to get started.

Happy to see so many members of the #editing community here too! 👋

#amediting #edibuddies #editingcommunity #writingcommunity