Why I should have been a lawyer

I'm going to go off on a tangent before I've even established a straight line, but time spent trying to get the hang of Twitter does make you want to luxuriously expand into the endless space of the Blogger edit box. I went into the bank to sign up for a business account but rather than HSBC holding open their welcoming arms for me to run giggling into, they took some notes, made me play telephone pingpong with their business advisor and then made me commit to spending my lunch hour next week driving into town to meet her for what will probably be a sales chat. And it won't be me selling to her. Although that nicely brings me back to my straight line.

When the cashier noted the nature of my business, she wrote that I was planning to be a "copyrighter". The point at which I realised that publishing is the realm of the underpaid, the under-appreciated and the over-educated happened to coincide with the point at which I realised that my college peers with their law conversions were wisely trying to eliminate the underpaid aspect of their careers. I like the sound of being a copyrighter - "Do you have permission to plagiarise that hackneyed old quote, Mr Higginbottom? Dd you even bother to give it a little creative spin? I thought not. Copyright application dismissed!"

Most people just don't know what copywriting and copy editing are. And worse, most people think they know. It's not law - there are no years of intense study or overuse of technical jargon... oh, hang on. There are. It must be complicated because my conversations with my mother go like this:

[In the interests of family unity, I've self-censored my paraphrase of a typical phonecall with my mother. Which is a pity, because it was funny. Let's just say that she is concerned that copy editing is not a good use of my education and intelligence. And that her friends all look blank when she tells them how I'll be earning a living. And then casually adds that her friends' kids are all high powered lawyers. Probably dealing with copyright cases.]

Well, she's right. Not about copy editing wasting my talents, obviously - as we all know, clear communications will save the world, and even I would forgive a misplaced comma in return for universal peace. But people still won't know what it means, or what it's for, or why it's needed. Just look at my redundant publishing team, all trained up and no place to edit.

Demonstrating the value - and complexity - of written communications is hard in this age of txt spk and hash tags. The nature of quality can be argued forever, but when it comes down to it, clear, accurate prose in books, on the web, on the back of smoothie Tetrapaks (love that Innocent brand identity) will not only save the world but also, more importantly for small businesses, will convert into sales and maintain and even enhance their reputation. And that's a great way to earn a living.

Apart from the being underpaid, under-appreciated and over-educated part, of course.

Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we edit

A cafe in town has been refurbished. Its vulgar lighting, hard chairs and clinical green decor have been transformed into a softly lit maroon-and-buttermilk oasis dotted with curvaceous sofas. It looks like my sort of place. But what is this? A sign etched across the window reads:

Salads and sandwiches made fresh

What a revolutionary idea! Bring your droopy lettuce and mouldering sarnies and they too will be refurbished - look, good as new!

Oh, do you think they just mean "Freshly made salads and sandwiches"? How disappointing.

Will the error directly affect their income? Will potential customers think, "I don't drink coffee in cafes with ungrammatical signage"? Unlikely. But, actually, ambiguous advertising can provoke detrimental responses. If they can't clearly describe what they do, can they really do it? If their attention to detail is lacking, what else have they forgotten? Well, who am I to criticise? It is easily done - dashing off a blog late at night, my own attention to detail isn't what it could be (as you rightly point out, Andrew, and I do appreciate it!) and I'm an editor. Cafes should get on with what they're good at, whether it's making fresh food or making food fresh, but all businesses need to be aware of the impact on their reputation - and possible impact on their profits - if they get it wrong.

So today's inspiration? That there is a place in the world for us poor underrated editors. To check your work before making it public [Julia gives her post a second read-through]. Oh, and to invent a food freshener, if that cafe hasn't done so already.