Ophelia de Vere

  “I look forward to better drafts.” When a line such as this arrives in your inbox on a Wednesday afternoon, the first thought is WTF. It's an automatic and visceral reaction to the undercurrents beneath the words. Even though they sound passive-aggressively polite, it really is the verbal equivalent of a middle finger. What the writer really means is: “The draft so far hasn’t been good enough.”  It gets worse in the context of the rest of the email. Here, he questions the agency's attitude, implies that we failed to see or deliver an obvious solution, and dismisses the draft as superficial, uninspired, and interchangeable. All the while being exceedingly self-congratulatory about one interview, where he was able to argue his point not only "very successfully" but "much to the satisfaction of my conversation partners". It was one journalist.  What he does not mention are the other ten articles about the same topic. 10 texts he had already approved. 10 texts...