Merrill Perlman is a consultant who works with news organizations, private companies and students, specializing in helping people communicate better through more effective writing and editing. She spent 25 years at The New York Times in jobs ranging from copy editor to director of copy desks, in charge of all 150-plus copy editors at The Times. (Both titles are, sadly, extinct at the Times.) She is an adjunct assistant professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and writes the Language Corner column for the Columbia Journalism Review. Merrill is a member of the executive committee of ACES: The Society for Editing and of its Education Fund, She has received the Missouri Honor Medal from the Unversity of Missouri, the Glamann Award from ACES, and the Charles R. O'Malley Award for Excellence in teaching from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. She was a reporter for four years before becoming an editor.