What do all you pedants do in RL?

[RamblingRosa]

I'm just idly wondering where all you pedants are in RL since I never seem to meet any pedants outside of MN . Am I right in thinking that there are quite a few proof readers and editors inhabiting pedants' corner? Any linguists or translators? I'm just being nosy really.

Another lawyer.

Editor/writer (my mother's a journalist and fellow pedant so it's bred in the bone).

I'm a surveyor, but I wish I was an editor.

I'm a freelance sub-editor, or at least I was -- it's a dying trade and I've been struggling for work recently. By the time I finish maternity leave in October, I imagine I'll have to find another job

Interesting that there are lawyer pedants on here.

Our lawyer fairly regularly sends us corrections to our spelling errors.

Its a lawyer thing I think.

It's a crying shame, Meg. I do hope all those daft newspaper/mag proprietors who think they can do without subs face libel cases that could have been avoided. Especially Desmond...

I work for a charity, but have been a paid-up pedant since childhood. Also a Modern Languages graduate which probably explains why I have such a great need to make sure the English language is always written correctly. Daughter of a pedant and always happy to argue debate issues with colleagues. I work with 2 Americans, one of whom used to edit American Vogue, and we love having our pedantic ding-dongs about US vs. UK usage, commas, apostrophes et al.

Another ex-librarian here - but I now work in a school, in ICT support, so correcting misplaced apostrophes & other mistakes by the teachers children is part of my daily life.

I'm a journalist so, if popular image is true, should be able to turn blind eye not only to bad grammar but complete lack of substance and nod through out and out lies . Sadly, I am a non-genetic pedant - must have been swapped at birth.

Bad luck Meg - I think the lack of subbing is really becoming obvious in many papers. I know the Guardian never had a great reputation for the cleanness of its copy but in G2's main story on poverty today, there are bits that just don't make sense because copy has been cut and not re-read properly - whole lines missing.

I'd definitely like to sign up to the crack team of pedants... just let me know where and when

I'm a University Administrator and there are a lot of rules, regulations, publications etc. to write, read and proof-read. And, as with Doggiesayswoof, I too am the daughter of a pedant (of the highest order!).

Unfortunately though, my other half is far from pedant material and I frequently have to turn a blind eye or a deaf ear. But you'll be pleased to hear that I am indoctrinating DS in the ways of the pedant ("It's not "I've ate it", it's "I've eaten it"

moshimoshi - to be absolutely correct, I think you'll find it is the unborn baby who is gestating, not you!

One of my jobs is/was sub-editor of a private subscription professional journal, so my natural pedantry had a great outlet. As it was a very small production team (me and the Editor) I did all the copy editing, proofing, layout etc. And it was science-based, so I had to check it for factual accuracy, referencing and sense as well. Great fun!

My dad is an uber-pedant as well.
"can I get down from the table, please?"
"yes, I'm sure you are able to but you're not going to"
"please may I get down from the table"

oops - can't believe I got the gestation wrong. Damnation! It is indeed you who gestate i.e. To carry within the uterus from conception to delivery

In response to OP - I'm a very part-time teacher.

Sorry if the thread has moved on ... just wanted to register myself as a pedant

Journalist but I think my pedantry stems from doing hardcore linguistics as part of my English degree. Once you've sweated over subjunctives and conditionals you can't let it go...

Another linguistics graduate here (although I did a joint degree, with English Lit).

Now a market researcher, regularly writing reports.

It's become my job to do a final check of all our reports, which are known as me 'doing an anal'

Ooooh, can I be the odd one out?
I have to be pedantically precise in my job but with numbers, mostly, not words. I'm an Accountant.

Another lawyer. I spent this afternoon correcting the punctuation of a very good letter my very nice assistant had written but it was full of the wrong it's and its. And, for goodness sake, don't these people know what a comma is for?

Do all pedants carry a red pen with them, in case they come across a grammatical emergency?

No to the red pen; more like a big black marker pen!

I suppose I have another layer to my pedantry as well - I worked for the blood transfusion service for several years - pedantry is highly valued in a place like that!

I'm a teacher, of the SEN variety. I was a mini-pedant like many of the other posters, and was the class walking dictionary from the age of 6 with Pedantic traits. In the interest of furthering my knowledge of grammar and language I took Latin and Greek to A'level, but no further - these days it is useful for outwitting the dc and filling in crosswords

However... I just had to correct the errors on the HR forms today and return them to the director. Whether I will still have my job next week remains to be seen

another vote for the black marker pen

GW, that's just reminded me - my friend called me her Walking Dictionary the whole time we were at school together, and she still does! She is an expert Mrs. Malaprop

True pedants carry green pens - red first and then green!

I bottled out of correcting 'independant' in ds's book!