I’ve been a copy editor for 10 years, and the second thing* everyone says to me when I tell them what I do is, “Can I ask you something?” And then they ask me all kinds of questions—tough questions, easy questions, common questions, weird questions, questions about things their third-grade teacher told them, questions that are really just rants in disguise.

Strangely enough, I love it. I love the language, and I love what I do, so I really enjoy using the guise of helping people to blather on about, say, the finer points of punctuation. So now, out of the goodness of my heart, I’m answering your questions for free on the internet.

Go ahead. Ask me something.

*The first thing is, “Oh, I better watch how I speak around you.” Let me tell you now, you should stop worrying. Editing is my job, and I don’t work for free, so I promise I’m not secretly judging you if you make any mistakes.