Lawrence Downes
Lawrence Downes has been a contributing writer for the New York Times since 2004, mainly covering immigration and veterans.
Article Overview
In Downes's article, he believes that because copy editors are employed for their superior grammatical skills and not their tech savvy, editors are being slowly eliminated within their field. However, editors are staying afloat because they are evolving themselves in order to survive this technological takeover. They are making themselves understand the new technologies and how to properly use them when editing. So even though editors are becoming less, they are not going without an honorable fight.
Embrace new technologies instead of letting them replace the entire editing profession. It is now a must for every new copy editor to learn everything there is to know about technology. Because if editors decide to sit back and let computers take their place, publishers are going to let this change occur. Only after these publishers realize how important copy editors are, will they fully understand that copy editors cannot be replaced by any computer.
Alexis Madrigal states the same solution in his article. Only, Madrigal believes copy editors should allow themselves to be replaced by computers. It his belief that only then will publishers realize how incompetent computers really are compared to copy editors.
Alexis Madrigal states the same solution in his article. Only, Madrigal believes copy editors should allow themselves to be replaced by computers. It his belief that only then will publishers realize how incompetent computers really are compared to copy editors.
Picture of Lawrence Downes courtesy of: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/09/08/opinion/editorial_board/downes.jpg