There have been several comments concerning the editing of the MMD,
including some made by myself.  Let me say that I truly appreciate all
the hard work that Jody and Robbie do in order to bring us the MMD on
a daily basis.  I'm sorry if I gave the impression that I do not.

Since I edit papers written by college students, I know all about
the joy and the frustration of editing.  The joy comes when I see
significant improvement in a student's writing over a period of time.
I remember one student who, when he came to me at the beginning of the
semester, was receiving "C's" on papers.  By the end of the semester,
he was receiving "A's" and ended up with an "A" for the course.  That
was a joy for both  of us.

There are others whose writing never seems to improve no matter how much
I help them.  Some students repeatedly make the same mistakes which I
repeatedly correct.  That is the frustration.  I always give students
the opportunity to look over their papers and ask questions.  I tell
them that if they don't agree with the changes I've made, then I'll
fix it.   However, many of them never even bother to look over their
amended papers. As a result, they never learn from their mistakes.
These students provide the greatest challenge for an editor.

The following was written by a student who never looked at her edited
papers.  It is the text of an interview that she conducted, then wrote
up and gave to me on disk.


  early 1962, ;my stepfather got a job in west Pakistan it was
  construction of a dam for the world bank.  After graduating form high
  school , 1963 I joined my family in West Pakistan while their I worked
  as a draftsman.  I worked graduated till February of 1964, when ;my
  family returned to United States, but I did not return with my family
  , I started to hitching to India, and Nepal.   After that I hitched
  to Europe, and I travel about 8 month  through; ;the middle east and
  Europe than joined US Army in Munich German.  [etc.]

Granted, this person was a weak student to begin with.  Not all students
write this poorly.

Like Robbie and Jody, I've struggled over whether a sentence should be
changed, and how it should be changed.  I try to avoid making changes in
the content of a text.  Nevertheless, many students ask me what content
should be included in their papers.  I always respond with the same
question: "Have you talked to your instructor about this?"  Most of the
time, the answer is no.  I then remind the student that the instructor
is giving the grade, not me.  Therefore, the instructor's idea of what
the content should be is more important than mine.

Editing is a vital part of the MMD.  To reiterate, I do appreciate
the tireless efforts of our  editors in bringing us quality publication,
and hope that they will continue to do so.

Joyce Brite
Player Piano and Mechanical Music Exchange     * Buy - Sell - Trade *
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~brite/

 [ Thanks for your support of my editing, Joyce. ;)  I see in your
 [ example that (1) the writer places great importance on the ideas,
 [ at the expense of grammar (she probably she speaks as she writes)
 [ and (2) she tells an interesting story in logical form.  She's
 [ certainly not dumb!
 [
 [ The mystery: why (and how) does she successfully resist the
 [ pressures, all around her, to adapt and conform to the society in
 [ which she is living?  It shows in her writing.  Strange...   
 [ -- Robbie