Rene (or Renée as she is called in her article) Downing's most recent article on Habanero Restaurant is atrocious. She starts the article "it's" when she means "it has." She then separates subject and verb with a comma; this is the first rule of punctuation every English speaker learns. My ... students even get that right. It's shocking--that's right, it's, not it has--that such blaring errors are never caught by the staff. I can see why, as the editor's writing is grammatically incorrect and more importantly, bland. I've moved here recently, and I decide to read each article if I can get through the first sentence without cringing. You're showing the rest of the country that exciting food writing, thoughtful book reviews and critical assessments can never exist in Tucson. If you want people to start caring, get an editor that is experienced and knowledgeable. My CV is available to look at ...
I responded and said thanks, but we don't hire rude people. I also e-mailed her an entry from The Associated Press Stylebook where it says "it's" is acceptable for "it has." To paraphrase, she responded and said that I was condescending, defensive and needed to be more like Dan Savage.
Maybe this was one of her students:
Hello Mr. Boegle. How are you? My name is ... and I am a 19-year-old student. ... The purpose of this e-mail is to ask if you have an internship or volunteer position available at Good News Tucson.
And people wonder why editors like to drink ...
