The Ultimate English Proof

Some ... well, most ... scientific journals have English proofing as an official stage in pre-publication life of your paper. The need for this stage is obvious -- it is becoming increasingly rarer when authors are native in English. In fact, this guy is not a native English spe... hm, writer.

Got this in email today:

The yellow marker is the revision made by the English proofer. In fact, this is a PDF comment. No actual comment, just the marker. Ve-e-e-e-ry unclear on what I should do about it. So, I had to send a reply email asking for clarification.

In the meantime the verdict is: the ultimate English proofer is a guy who tells you WHAT to write in your papers rather than a guy who fixes spelling and grammatical errors. The idea that I could alternate several writing styles and allow for some frivolity here and there ... is now shattered.