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| Professional Organizer | |||
Organizing ArticlesWhat is a Professional Organizer? Filing SystemCreating a Filing System - Introduction Feng ShuiThe Art of Feng Shui ~ Introduction Closet ReorganizationTake Charge of Your Closet Children's OrganizingCube The Clutter in Children's Rooms EducationFollow The Paper |
Red Pencil Fever ~ Original Article Just to show you that good advice can be timeless. I present below an article that was written by my mom back in 1973. For those of you who have not yet read my other articles or had seen the Generosity Room on my old web site, my mom Bertha "Kitty" Kitover was an incredibly intelligent and organized person. The article is presented below in its entirety and there are two follow up articles. One is comment feedback that was received back in 1973, and the other article is by me with some help from "my" editor. Red Pencil Fever If you’re interested in the symptoms of a very ancient disease, Red Pencil Fever, they’re very simple to spot: A desk-load of sharpened pencils – red, preferably – with a couple of erasers to instill inner confidence! That’s in the morning. In the evening there is a batch of worn-down pencils in you’re “out” basket! The disease doesn’t really come out in the form of a rash, although the other gal is more than likely to get one, nor does the thermometer show anything more than 98.6 . . . but there’s no doubt about the fact that you’re suffering from Red Pencil Fever. A draft has been placed on your desk, labored over for hours-perhaps days- by a subordinate, or perhaps by someone not connected with your operation but who merely wants to get your experienced opinion on content. Out comes that pencil, and boy, do you do a job on that subordinate! • For goodness sakes! Look at that participle hang! Hours of labor were spent on this report, but who’s caring about substance? See? The diagnosis is simple . . . a few red (or blue-or black-your preference) pencils, or better still, felt-tipped pens (a strong desire to go into the editing field) and a certain type of egotism interpreted by the laborer to mean that you think you are the best writer in the field . . . and bingo! You’ve got it . . . Red Pencil Fever! Change for the sake of change. When she looks at some of the edits, she’ll call you a nut, and will probably be right because no one reading the matter will give a hoot as to whether she said “shortly” or “in the near future”. She probably used the former because she saved three words. The only thing really accomplished-and that word is used loosely-is to remove some of that well-needed confidence that your subordinate has been developing over the course of time. In all probability, she’s made herself understood. As a matter of fact, she is probably better qualified to describe the subject because this is her day-to-day living. Everyone can’t be a writer. People who have that type of urge and potential try to choose the field in which they’ll best be suited. Your subordinate will end up spending twice as much time as necessary the next round because she’ll want to satisfy the “editor”. Worse than that, she will try to mimic your style, giving up a piece of her own identity. Watch out, also, that she doesn’t slip one of your very own pieces under your nose just for the sake of proving her point. Before you know it, you will find yourself programming your own masterpiece. Some of the old-fashioned grammatical rules have seen their day, and many don’t hold fast in today’s business world. If your subordinate wants to hang her participle and split her infinitive, let her! If you really want to be an editor-change profession. Otherwise, dump those pencils! Sit down and discuss the changes you think are necessary in private – never, never in public. Give the gal on the lower level the confidence that she needs to grow. Otherwise, the prognosis will be that she, like her participle, will also be hung, and like her infinitive, she will split. |
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