Watch Out for the PUGS Monster
By Martin Wiles Stop! Wait! Don’t leave yet (at least not without sharing the post). I know. You’ve been editing for fifty years. No one could teach you anything about PUGS. But an old saying comes to mind: Familiarity breeds contempt. And which one of us, after reading the Bible in its entirety, would say, “Well, I can check that off my bucket list. Don’t need to do that again.” And yes, I know several forms of editing abound: substantive (developmental), line editing, copyediting, proofreading. You may be tempted to pass this post by because you do one of the types that doesn’t necessarily focus on PUGS. But then again, how can we do any type of editing and fail to notice this monster that often lurks in manuscripts? And yes, I know we now have apps and other tools to help us detect PUGS. Microsoft Editor, Grammarly, etc. But like our friend AI, these should be an editor’s tools, not replace our knowledge and education. I love editing, and I love my job as a m...
