Which reminds me to admit: I’m not a copy editor. I’m just a writer who cares about the language.

As to your challenge, first, I’ll assume Sara’s software doesn’t support em dashes, so we’ll let those go. (WordPress does support em dashes, by the way. I would recommend a change of platform.)

Second, just before the challenge paragraph, you write: “I challenge any so-called copy editor to find an error, if any, in them.”

I believe you need agreement between AN error, singular, and “if any,” which implies plural. The best solution is to delete the extraneous phrase “if any.” That way you’d also avoid the rep of any-any.

Or you could write, “I challenge any so-called copy editor to find the errors, if any, in them.”

But that paragraph wasn’t up for challenge, was it?

The challenge paragraph raises an issue: Should a copy editor be a fact checker? Certainly a copy editor should bring his intelligence, education, and a questioning mind to the process.

Hence your first error: Anne Boleyn was the SECOND wife of Henry III, not the first.

Next, I would suggest bringing verb agreement to your second sentence by inserting “had” before “a sexual affair.”

“She had been unfaithful to him by having had a sexual affair…”

Not a great sentence, but it’s grammatically correct.

Fun challenge. Thanks!

I’ve been a professional copy editor for 40 YEARS–you read that right–and with every passing year I see the ongoing dumbing down of America, which inevitably means the dumbing down of people in the editing profession.

An endless parade of young people now try to pass themselves off as copy editors, but all they do–most of them, anyway–is display their ignorance.

I’m now going to post a couple of sentences, and I challenge any so-called copy editor to find an error, if any, in them. If you think you’ve found one, [comment here and] tell me about it. Here goes:

Anne Boleyn, the first wife of Henry VIII, was the mother of Queen Elizabeth I–but she didn’t live to see her daughter ascend the throne. Henry had her beheaded because he was certain she had been unfaithful to him by having a sexual affair with a member of the court.

Okay, you so-called copy editors–go to it!

In any case, pgag’s comment above is need of both. Four blatant errors.

Your last sentence, by the way, is missing a comma. It should read, “Thank you, Blart.” I don’t care what you call me as long as you punctuate correctly.

Thank you Blart. (That was on purpose.)

Never claimed to be perfect or the world’s best – just trying to help small businesses with their marketing materials.

Copyediting is one word, not two.

The cliché is not “not one in the same;” it’s “one AND the same.”

“Copy editors don’t write, they refine.” True. They would refine that sentence by replacing the comma with a semicolon.

“Well written” is not hyphenated unless it precedes the noun it modifies. The sentence is well written. It is a well-written sentence.

Your Best of “2009 Blog Challange” might go over better if you were to spell “challenge” properly.

In your About section, you write, “I’ve found a few writer’s who…” Plurals are formed by adding an “s,” not an apostrophe, except in places like bait stands (“Worm’s!”).