To usher in 2023, I’ve compiled 5 new year’s resolutions for editors and proofreaders at the blog of AFEPI Ireland – the Association of Freelance Editors, Proofreaders and Indexers of Ireland.
I’ve always been wary of making new year’s resolutions, never taking them very seriously. So if you feel similarly, don’t be put off on that account. But I think they can be helpful if framed in a certain way, which I do in the opening paragraph.
Some suggestions are practical, addressing work habits and environment; others focus on our relationship to words and language, since this too is an important part of the work of editing and proofreading. Certain advice also applies to other trades.
It’s a short article, just over 800 words, and you can read it here.
Sentence first 
I smiled at no. 5, because after many years in the U.S. midwest, I find myself using the regionalism [need + past participle] without giving it a thought. As in “The dishes need washed.”
Thanks for reading it, Michael. Though I’m familiar with the needs washed construction, it’s not in my dialect, which instead would have needs washing or needs to be washed. The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project website has a nice page on it:
https://ygdp.yale.edu/phenomena/needs-washed
Thanks for that, Stan. Here’s one back, an article about [need +] a friend pointed me to years ago:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/455549
If I come to accept positive anymore, I know I’ll have lost any claim to my Brooklyn roots.