People often ask how I became an editor. It started the summer after I graduated high school. Amazon.com had just started and from them I ordered a book titled “Car Secrets Revealed” (by Corey Rudl). The book, while somewhat interesting, was nearly impossible to read because of numerous spelling errors, run on sentences, and other grammatical mistakes. The book had some good info in it so I didn’t want to return it; instead, I researched the author, got his e-mail, and pestered him to let me edit the second edition of his book. The rest is history. While Mr. Rudl went on to become an infamous “e-mail marketer,” I went to college, dropped out after a year-and-a-half, and found myself in a succession of various jobs that were information management-related: database programming; converting Boeing tech manuals to PDFs; and proofreading for a major commercial printer, among others. Each setting was completely unlike the other but two things remained with me always: a good dictionary and a style guide (usually The Chicago Manual of Style).