Q&A …

… Scholars Talk Writing: Hyphens, Oxford Commas, and Pronoun Preferences - The Chronicle of Higher Education. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

The important thing is that the decisions rest with the writer. The copy editor has to suppress her ego. But the writer doesn’t have to be an ass. In general, the better the writer, the more open he or she is to being copy-edited. The best writers need the least copy-editing and are also the most open to being copy-edited.

As a former copy editor,  I can vouch for this.