useful skills

theferret pontificated a bit on editing this morning.

On Editing, Part III
Another weird thing about editing that I’ve had to drill into everyone’s head is that “You are not a spell-checker.” I know a lot of amateur editors (well, mostly sitemasters who call themselves editors) who don’t do much more than run Word’s grammar tool, but real editing involves making the author look good; you’re his valet, brushing the dust off his coat and sticking down that unruly cowlick. You spend a fair amount of time removing subtle redundancies, condensing awkward (if grammatically correct) phrasings, and checking facts.
*****
It is this type of editing that I count in my top five skills.

I can't write worth a damn (except for business letters), but I can edit. Real editing. I can check for grammar, spelling and word usage, continuity, awkwardness, readability and dozens of other things. I can tell if what I've fixed doesn't sound like the stuff around it and needs some more tweaking to return to its proper style.

I actually love to do this kind of work. Too bad my most marketable skill is numbers. It's also too bad that in the last five years, I've used this skill almost exclusively in fanfic, where I don't get paid in money (not that I'm discounting the virtual eclairs or cyberhugs, mind you).