The worst crime by an editor or reviewer

Have you ever wondered what constitutes a crime committed by an editor or a reviewer?

In the days of proofreading, there were standard symbols associated with the changes to be made in a copy or manuscript. When it came to desktop publishing, the editor or reviewer used to turn the Track Changes feature in a word processing software like Microsoft Word on. Technical writing tools such as Adobe FrameMaker and Madcap Flare enable commenting on a document. Adobe Acrobat allows comments in PDF docs.

So, despite all these modern facilities, what if someone goes to the extent of editing text on the sly in a document? Edits that the poor writer discovers later and finds them damn wrong.

One reason may be overconfidence. The reviewer would have been so overconfident and would have never imagined that the edits would be wrong. The reviewer must not be knowing that industry practice provides the benefit of doubt to the writer. The mantra, "When in doubt, check it out." applies to reviewers also. There is no place for megalomania in such cases.

The second reason may be the lack of integrity and ethics that are so crucial for a reviewer or editor. For some reason, the reviewer did not want the writer to know about the edits. Such dishonesty can cause the writer trouble if project stakeholders or customers discover the errors later. In a professional, corporate setup, such dishonesty should have no place.

The final reason can be ignorance. When people become reviewers just because of an authority granted by the organization and was never ever trained to review or edit, such things happen. Editing is an art and it cannot be done by everybody unless they put dedicated efforts.

Editing or reviewing is not an exercise to find other's mistakes. It is a struggle towards perfection. Any Tom, Dick, and Harry cannot become a good editor or reviewer overnight. It requires continues learning, patience, humility, and ability to correct oneself. There should be no place for dishonesty and half-baked knowledge in this fiercely competitive world.