As such, it can difficult to convince some of those people that their expertise in, say, optics doesn’t always translate directly to an expertise in language and grammar.
Some of them are quite grateful to let someone else make their words sound all pretty and stuff!
Been there, done that. Worked with many professional (commercial) subject matter experts, nearly all of whom would defer to my improvement of their content as long as I kept their material accurate. Most were grateful I made their stuff better. I guess in non-commercial arenas - e.g. opinionated academics - they think it IS their profession, so will argue the toss.
In non-professional arenas (amateur voluntary articles for a magazine, for example) I am constantly frustrated by pompous arses who not only think they can write elegant prose (they can’t) but also believe they know how it should be laid out and how it should be spaced and how it should appear on the page.
