(one) is not a mind reader

expression One is not innately able to know what someone else is thinking. How could I have known what you were planning for dinner? I'm not a mind reader! Look, if you're dissatisfied with your work, you need to communicate that to your managers. They aren't mind readers, after all. I really wish my boyfriend would just tell me what's bothering him. I'm not a mind reader, after all!

beta reader

Someone who reads a literary work before it is released to the public. A beta reader is not a professional in the field of writing and publishing, which allows them to offer objective feedback from the perspective of an ordinary reader. A beta reader can help an author fix inconsistencies in plotting that would confuse the average reader. I'm totally devastated that the beta readers called my book dull and unoriginal. I don't know why he still thinks his book is so great after getting feedback that the beta readers didn't enjoy it.

exercise for the reader

A subject, debate, or other matter that is not decided or dealt with directly by the author or presenter, but rather is left up to the judgment or interpretation of the observer, reader, or addressee. The report merely details the spending practices of the parties concerned; whether or not these payments were dubious in nature is left as an exercise for the reader. The politician's speech made broad references to invigorating the economy with practical, no-nonsense measures—what such measures might be, though, was left as an exercise for the reader. Your thesis is not supposed to be an exercise for the reader—it needs to be clear and apparent from page one.

reader

n. a piece of paper with writing on it; a note; a prescription; an IOU. (Underworld.) I got a reader for some morphine.

See also:

References in periodicals archive

To Google's credit (which still does not absolve it of its evil, evil decision), the company has made it easy for current Reader users to export all of their personal data from Reader.

Life after Google Reader: Best alternatives, how to save your Reader data

Carus's wife Marianne became his partner in assembling the readers. They disregarded the controlled vocabulary that was a staple of the look-say readers.

The triumph of look-say: dumbing-down reading instruction

Readers give to a variety of causes for a variety of reasons, but they resoundingly agree that they want their donations to directly support their chosen causes and not administrative costs.

What do you get from giving? Their charitable checks may be small compared to those of a billionaire, but U.S. CATHOLIC readers have faith that they will get some bang for their buck when they give to their charities of choice

So the newsletter story went straight to its readers' interest, with the headline, 'Oil Jobbers See Little Effect from Conoco-Marathon Merger."

How to position editorial content for your readers

This is exactly the kind of callout that can draw in a reader. What is this "Stonemaster," and why is it so revered?

Stand out from the crowd: create "entry points" throughout your article to draw the reader in

Banks, author of the Vampire Huntress Legend series, says it's the whole mystique of immortality that keeps the vampire genre so fresh, attracting new readers while keeping longtime fans hanging on for more.

Meanwhile, back at the crypt: new black vampire and horror tales are so sexy

Consistent with the highest achievement of scholarly academic dialogue, the authors do not force the reader into a conclusion.

Samuel Bowles, Herbert Gintis, and Melissa Osborne, (Eds.), Unequal Chances: Family Background and Economic Success

"Our high level of reader acceptance translates into an attractive vehicle for advertisers who want to reach this rapidly growing, affluent market."

Updates from the media

She inverted readers' expectations, forcing them to examine their own assumptions and instincts, to perceive how they might identify with and even become the alienator, dominator, and oppressor.

The parables of Octavia Butler: a science-fiction writer's rich libertarian legacy

The reader will not always agree with De La Torre's conclusions or his interpretations of the biblical text, but the interested and thoughtful reader will be rewarded by engaging his ideas.

Reading the Bible from the Margins

And it's a reaction to the accidental benefit of attracting general readers who got intrigued by Booklist when its reviews began popping up on Amazon.com nine years ago.

Net gains: Mara Tapp on Booklist at 100

Based upon reader surveys, Type & Layout shows us how easy or how difficult it is to read various type.

Type & Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes

As the first precocious reader of this kind to submit to a brain-imaging analysis, Ethan stands at the forefront of scientific efforts to understand how the brain underwrites reading.

Read all about it: kids take different neural paths to reach print mastery