I love my students. Really, I do. It's just that they do the strangest things.
Why is it that students think they have to use big words to impress readers? No matter how many times I tell them to begin sentences with "but," many insist on using "however." Another thing I can't understand is how a student can use a word in a sentence when said student has no idea what the word means. It's worse when they use a direct quote that makes no sense.
Crank: What does this quote mean?
Student: I'm not sure.
Crank: Why did you use it?
Student: I don't know. I was wondering about it.
Crank: Hand me your pencil so I may stick it in my eye.
Student: Why?
Crank: I'm sure it will be more fun than reading the rest of this story.
Two books that will improve anyone's writing:
The Media Writer's Handbook, by George T. Arnold
A hardcover dictionary. (Yes -- this is a book. It contains paper pages that need to be turned.)
One last thought: Running the "spell-check" program is not the equivalent of proofreading.
Boy, do I feel better.
4 comments:
mhhh hahhahah
classic...
And why is it that very well educated students completely forget how to write when it comes to captions? AP style lessons just completely vanish ... and then they say things like, "Well, this is a photo class."
I have to agree with Mark. With four years of experience at a small sports section, I can't tell you how many errors I have corrected in cutlines. It seems like cutlines, which are typically less than three sentences, should be some of the cleanest copy in the newspaper. But instead, they're some of the dirtiest. Time and time again, I found that the majority of photogs don't care about writing good cutlines. They're too preoccupied with other things. They're much, much, much more concerned with how much play the photo gets, or it's size.
I always knew that most photogs were premadannos, but after working with quite a few, I now know that many are just plain lazy, too. It probably comes from only using their index finger.
I have to agree with Mark. With four years of experience at a small sports section, I can't tell you how many errors I have corrected in cutlines. It seems like cutlines, which are typically less than three sentences, should be some of the cleanest copy in the newspaper. But instead, they're some of the dirtiest. Time and time again, I found that the majority of photogs don't care about writing good cutlines. They're too preoccupied with other things. They're much, much, much more concerned with how much play the photo gets, or it's size.
I always knew that most photogs were premadannos, but after working with quite a few, I now know that many are just plain lazy, too. It probably comes from only using their index finger.
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