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Along the thread of professionalism that has recently rearisen, I'd like to
pick your brains on the following:
As chair of the Awards Committee for the Association of Earth Science
Editors, I'm writing a recommendation to our Board of Directors that AESE
discontinue its "Broken Blue Pencil" (BBP) award. The BBP award is given
along with our official awards for outstanding publications, service to the
association and editorial accomplishments. It is made in "recognition of
editorial mistakes, faux pas, and other inadvertencies beyond the
ordinary." Because it is "not given in derision but in recognition of the
humanity of us all," only self-elected nominations are considered.
However, the award has
been claimed only six times from 1970 to 1982.
The consensus of the Awards Committee is that the BBP award may be
harmless fun, but it doesn't offer any standard to the membership and is
inappropriate to present in the same ceremony with the "real" awards.
Please send me your opinions pro or con for the BBP award -- if
there is sufficient interest, I'll post a summary to the list.
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