From: Kory L. Sxxx
Subject: Re: We would like a job
To: "Joe and Dan Signorelli"
Date: Friday, January 16, 2009, 8:37 AM
Dear Bros. Signorelli:
Thank you for your e-mail and your interest in Merriam-Webster. We appreciate your tireless efforts to use words daily and thereby keep us in business.
You may be saddened to learn that the work of a dictionary editor is not in creating new words, but rather in recording the use of new words as they appear in edited, printed prose. Believe it or not, the dictionary has indeed grown over the years--we add anywhere from 50-100 words every year, not counting the full revisions that add thousands of new words, and that is just a fraction of the new words we have evidence for. But it looks like you are looking for employment on the wrong side of this "new word" schtick. Two fine neologists such as yourselves would do the English language the most amount of good out in the wild, where your coinages will be heard and passed along. Though our editors are creative, intelligent, and remarkably good-looking, they are still but "harmless drudges," as Samuel Johnson put it a few hundred years ago, resigned to a career of recording other people's witticisms. You can read about the defining process at www.Merriam-Webster.com/help/faq/word_in.htm.
That said, if you wish to apply for an editorial job with us, please send a cover letter and résumé to:
Stephen J. Pxxx
Merriam-Webster, Inc.
PO Box xxx
Springfield MA 01102
Thanks again for writing, and I will pass your compliments along to the editors who worked on "rhubarb."
Cordially,
Kory Sxxx, Associate Editor
Merriam-Webster, Inc.
www.Merriam-Webster.com
www.wordcentral.com
www.Merriam-WebsterUnabridged.com
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