Wendy Belcher is an author, an editor, and an assistant professor at Princeton. She also publishes the newsletter Flourish.
Q: What is your preferred environment for editing?
A: At the computer. Unless I start to feel frustrated or overwhelmed, in which case I like to work on a hard copy at the dining room table.
Q: What punctuation mark are you fondest of?
A: The semicolon is the loveliest of all punctuation marks; with one keystroke you can eliminate all the words you would have used to transition to the next sentence.
Q: What punctuation, spelling, grammar, style, or usage error annoys you the most?
A: I got into editing because I wanted to help others express their ideas, not because I thought the language should be policed. My favorite book is the descriptive, not prescritive, Merriam Webster Dictionary of English Usage, which lists all the greats who did exactly what we tell our
clients not to do. Language is a process, not a shrine.
Q: If you weren't in your current line of work, what would you be doing instead?
A: Actually, I'm in transition to become a professor of English literature.
Q: What drove you to become an editor?
A: See above.
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