I never worked directly with John E. McIntyre. His employer was the Baltimore Sun while I was at The Washington Post, papers separated by a few dozen miles but, in personality, a continent’s worth of difference.

Still, whenever we would meet on occasion at industry events, John had a way of putting things that would stick with me.

For example, he once described copy editing as an Augustinian profession: We editors know in our bones that, despite the best of intentions, each of us falls short. How can you forget an aphorism like that?

John was wise about our shared profession, and we are fortunate that he collected several insights into a slim book, The Old Editor Says. When John announced his retirement this month from the Sun, I pulled down that 2013 book and thumbed through it one more time. Although he aimed at an audience of journalists, several points apply just as well to the school communicator. Here are only a few:

Your mother does not work here. Pick up after yourself.
If you rely on anyone else (a colleague or the magazine designer, for instance) to catch the spelling you only guessed at, you may be disappointed.

If you are your own editor, you’re working without a net.
McIntyre adds, “If what you’re writing is really important, pay someone to look closely at it.”

Here’s a tip: Know your bad habits. My foible is subject-verb agreement; for others, spelling or inexact synonyms may be the bugaboo. Being self-aware can go a long way toward catching the errors you typed in.

The reader doesn’t care how hard you worked on that story.
Ouch! But true.

If there’s a word in the text that you don’t understand and you let the text go, you haven’t edited it.
Never assume that the writer got it right. It doesn’t matter if the writer chairs the board or is the college president. Trust me: You’ll both sleep better if you double-check any questions you feel in your gut.

Mistakes lurk in the big type.
Oh my yes. Experienced editors know that headlines, for some reason, carry a bit of kryptonite that make errors hard to spot.

There’s plenty more wisdom where these came from, and John’s book is a nice fit next to your preferred stylebook. Amazon is usually a reliable source for a copy, although it does go in and out of print fairly often.

This post is adapted from the June 2021 issue of Refill, a newsletter published by Fine Point Communications.