Presto Vivace Blog

BL Ochman is doing a series of interviews with marketing and PR bloggers, including an interview with yours truly. She has managed to describe the purpose of this blog perfectly.

One point I would like to emphasize the the role of my copy editor.

Marshall selected a copy editor, who is highly intelligent, intellectually curious. The editor has no tech background whatsoever. "My feeling is that if my copy editor can't understand it then I need to re-write it. "

Much of the bad writing in technology comes from press releases written by flacks who are only vaguely aware of the meaning of the terminology, jargon, and buzzwords that they use. They throw down the words in the innocent belief that their technical audience will understand releases that they themselves do not understand. I make a point of learning the terminology, so that I can put it into simple English whenever possible. I also use a copy editor who, while highly educated, has no technical background. Your copy should almost always be simple enough that an educated layman can understand it.