Once again I have encountered some brain-dead editors. They've changed my wording so that the original meaning is completely lost. Look at this:

I said:

"Because of incomplete reporting, he said, the numbers just hint at the full scope of the problem."

They changed it to:

"A few findings associated with incomplete and inconsistent reporting hint at the national scope of nurses' role [sic] in medical errors." Duh! Clearly they don't want to think that a nurse has a role in medical errors. Head in the sand mentality.

Or...they wanted me to define "thereby missing the bigger picture."

Or...get this:

Mine: "The quote above was from a new graduate in a setting with no standardized transition to practice program." Clear enough, right?

Their edit: "The above quote by a recent graduate was employed in a setting without a transition to practice program." Sounds to me like the quote was employed!

I say "if;" they say "whether." However, if I say "whether," they say "if."

And on and on it goes...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this doesn't appear to actually be sentence. It has no verb. Without a verb it's meaningless.

quote:

"A few findings associated with incomplete and inconsistent reporting at the national scope of nurses' role [sic] in medical errors."

Bob, I had originally left out the word "hint" and edited it in. I did it within a few minutes of posting it, but I see you came in very quickly so our posts must have crossed. Still, they completely changed the idea. The original is saying that the reports of errors are incomplete so the statistics were just hinting at the scope of the problem, which is likely much bigger. The editors, to me, make it much more ambiguous. What is meant by "A few findings associated with incomplete and inconsistent reporting?" And "a few?" There were more than 3 million files nationwide. "Inconsistent" was never mentioned and something the editors made up. They really changed the meaning, to me.

But my favorite is their edit implying that the quote was employed.

There is definitely no place for "a few" there. It definitely shouldn't be used as it's too woolly a concept. Your text suggests that you are paraphrasing what was said by another ("he said"). That is completely lost in their changes. If the report says elsewhere that it is what someone said, they must most definitely make no additions like "inconsistent". In other words, he (or she) said it.

The quote was employed, the way I read the sentence. That's the trouble with using jargon. "The above quote by a recent graduate was employed ..." means the quote was used by the graduate.

quote:

The quote was employed, the way I read the sentence. That's the trouble with using jargon. "The above quote by a recent graduate was employed ..." means the quote was used by the graduate.

arnie, I think the editors meant that the new nurse was employed in a setting that had no transition to practice program. Who knows, though.

I have asked them to make changes in their edits...or not to publish it. Period.