PSAT Glitch

[Bethany K. Dumas]

On Sat, 17 May 2003, Arnold Zwicky wrote:

>modern speakers and writers of english show a very strong tendency
>to locate the focus adverbs "only" and "even" early in the clause,
>between subject and predicate (or after the first auxiliary verb):
...
>now, the cute part.  copy editors are trained to notice these "errors"
>and "fix" them.  they do this rapidly and skillfully.  *and they never
>seem to need to consult the authors about their intentions.* that is,
>the copy editors correctly divine the writers' intentions, virtually
>one hundred percent of the time; they are, after all, intelligent

TIme to confess my closet prescriptionism. This one drives me crazy. For a
year, as executive editor of the Tennessee Law Review, I fixed all such
<errors>. It was wonderful revenge - I got even with law professors who
had been driving me crazy for 2+ years!

Bethany