Ugly Smugly

Smug people are really annoying. I don't like them at all.

There is one member of the "smug club" who I find particularly annoying and am forced to encounter on a weekly basis. How this Engineer found her way into my editing class, I do not know, but her priority seems to be to make sure that everybody knows that she knows everything, and is right- always!

You have probably encountered such an individual at one time or another. The type who answers every rhetorical question and interrupts loudly, drowning out anyone else who dares share their opinion.

Smug people are cunning types. They try to disguise their true nature by diverting your attention. For example, the smug girl in question often interjects loudly with a furrowed brow, then trails off her self-righteous declaration with a pseudo-shy giggle. It's such a well-rehearsed act that I'm certain many are unaware of the truth.

It was only today that her smugliness revealed itself to me. During class discussion, I suggested an editorial correction, which admittedly was wrong as I had misread the sentence of the manuscript in question, but upon hearing my suggestion she actually scoffed, and to my amusement was reprimanded by our tutor.

Dear Smugly,
Perhaps in engineering it's important to be right all the time, but the English language is quite different. There are many acceptable, yet varied, ways to edit a manuscript because editing is intuitive, not scientific. What are you going to do when you encounter a challenge that can't be fixed by regurgitating a quote from a handbook? Good luck in the real world.
Sincerely,
Laura