Ode to an editor

Copy editors receive little praise. They mostly get noticed when they don't do a perfect job. This piece, therefore, made me smile and say thanks. In What My Copy Editor Taught Me, author Dorothy Gallagher recounts learning how to read sentences and how to make her words count. The essay appeared in today's New York Times Book Review. Here's a passage that gets to the heart of what I think good editors ought to do:

Helene had no literary theories — she had literary values. She valued clarity and transparency. She had nothing against style, if it didn’t distract from the material. Her blue pencil struck at redundancy, at confusion, at authorial vanity, at the wrong and the false word, at the unearned conclusion. She loved good writing, therefore she loved the reader: good writing did not cause the reader to stumble over meaning.

Happy National Comma Day

Did I miss the proclamation of National Comma Day? In this morning's news writing class, I discussed the use of commas after cities and states. When I returned to my office after class, I opened an e-mail from a Boston reader who had a question about that very subject. Coincidence? You decide.

Here's the conundrum. Read the following sentences aloud, and see if you need a comma:

• John is a Weston, Conn., native.
• Mr. Smith, the former Greeley, Colo., city manager, has a flower shop.
• Jane Jones has opened an office in Milford, Conn., representing clients in appeals cases.

If you said yes, you're a comma guru. Now try these:

• The Nov. 1, 2005, event went off without a hitch.
• He arrived on Nov. 1, 2005, and immediately began working at the firm.

Yes again. You are so smart!

The Associated Press Stylebook addresses these points in entries titled "state names" and "years," but it does not include the reasons behind the rules. George T. Arnold cites the same rule in the "Media Writer's Handbook: A Guide to Common Writing & Editing Problems," but like the AP, he provides no reasoning.

I tell my students that commas are necessary in each case because what follows modifies the preceding word or phrase. For instance, "Conn." explains where Weston is located, and "2005" describes the year in which the date occurred. If you take out the year or the state name, you do not need a comma. So the following would be correct:

• John is a Weston native.
• Mr. Smith, the former Greeley city manager, has a flower shop.
• The Nov. 1 event went off without a hitch.
• He arrived on Nov. 1 and immediately began working at the firm.

The only example from above that does not follow this rule is the Jane Jones sentence. The sentence simply wouldn't make sense without the comma, even without the state name. I'd change it to the following:

• Jane Jones has opened an office in Milford, where she represents clients in appeals cases.

Remember, commas are our friends. They come in handy when you want readers to pause. The best way I know of figuring out if a comma is needed is to read the sentence aloud. If I pause, I need a comma. If your ear doesn't catch the pause, for whatever reason, you might want to invest in a grammar and usage guide. At UNC, we require all journalism and mass communications majors to buy Arnold's book. The AP Stylebook features a thorough punctuation guide. Both are must-haves for all future journalists.

Austria ... home of Olympic heroes

What qualifies one to be a radio DJ? Was driving home from work today and flipping through channels, as I am forced to do because my 1998 Honda Civic has neither satellite radio, CD player nor MP-3 capability. (And by the way, there's no AC.)

Anyway, whilst flipping, I came upon a couple of nincompoops prattling about the Olympics. These would-be news junkies, who "work" for some FM station in the Denver area, were discussing the medal count. First, the male voice boasted of the USA's medal haul, correctly divining that we'd won the most. Then he read the rest of the top five medal-winning countries. He claimed that "Austria" was fifth with 38 medals.

Close. Austria won three medals -- one silver and two bronze -- and was tied for 41st. The Austrians won medals for swimming, kayaking and judo. What the DJ meant to say was "Australia," the only country that's also a continent. The Aussies had 38 -- 11 gold, 13 silver and 14 bronze. Australians took home 20 medals in swimming alone. If I knew name of the station, I'd send these numbskulls an atlas and an almanac.

First thing tomorrow, I'm going to the library to get some books on tape. Maybe a history of Australia. Or a shorter work on Austrian Olympic heroes.

Add "editing" to my list of worries

John Tierney of The New York Times recently wrote an article titled "10 things to scratch from your worry list." What has me worried is how this column got past the copy desk -- it's full of half-truths and misused statistics. Daniel Luzer of Mother Jones picks Tierney's column apart piece by piece. Although Tierney supplied some of the facts, he left out some key particulars that might have yielded a more helpful column. This story wasn't written on deadline, so the desk certainly had time to check the facts. Even more disturbing is the fact that Tierney's piece was in the Science section, which should be full of editors who understand how to decipher scientific studies. I wonder if this is a common problem at The Times or an anomaly.

It's important for journalists to interpret research so the reader can understand it. That sometimes means turning academic gobbledygook into English. It also means putting the statistics into context. What does the science mean to the average reader? To do this well, you have to understand the basics of scientific research. Was the study conducted properly? If you don't know what to look for, you can't help readers very much. If you're like many journalists and have an aversion to math, check out Robert Niles' guide to common statistical terms. It's a good introduction.

Remember, if you don't understand something, your readers might not, either. If you're unsure, ask. Better to be embarrassed in private than to get something ridiculously wrong in the mass media.

That is so ... nevermind

This sounds too good to be true. A Christian news site's policy to change the word "gay" to "homosexual" led to an error of Olympic proportion when track star Tyson Gay became "Tyson Homosexual." Think he's heard that one before? Read this story by Washington Post blogger Mary Ann Akers and you too may laugh like a 12-year-old.

Reminds me of a story I heard from a prof at North Carolina. He told of an editor who routinely searched every article for the word "pubic" and replaced it with "public" to avoid embarrassing spelling mistakes. One story involved a police investigation. The published story included a reference to a "public" hair found at the scene.

Both of these stories should serve as reminders that editors must actually READ the articles they profess to edit. And that some rules are made to be broken.

Are you (AP) stylin' yet?

When I was in graduate school, one of the first classes I taught was introductory news writing. My syllabus required students to buy the latest edition of the Associated Press Stylebook. I still require this in all my editing and writing courses. One of my best students in that long-ago class, who happened to be the daughter of a professor at the J-school, brought in her dad's 20-year-old copy of the book. I told her she -- or her father -- had to fork over the money for a newer version. As I remember, she earned the only A in the class. And I do mean earned.

I didn't share this story to make fun of the student or the professor, who is a great teacher and a respected historian, but rather to remind readers that the AP Stylebook is a living document. Language changes. These days, it seems like new words and phrases are popping up every day. It's up to journalists to keep up with the times. But doing so can be a daunting task for individual news organizations. That's one of the reasons the AP Stylebook is so important.

Each year, the editors at the AP cut things that have become unnecessary, update those that have changed, and add those that are needed. It usually takes a couple of years for the AP to decide whether new words and phrases are worthy of inclusion. In the meantime, it's up to individual editors to make those decisions. The point is to be accurate and consistent.

This year's version of the Stylebook has more than 200 new entries, including "iPhone," "wild card" and "outsourcing." The online version also contains a new section on food.

Among the entries discarded are "WAC," "malarkey" and "barmaid." I've used only one of these words in my 39-year existence. But the next time I'm sipping a cold one at the VFW, and a woman introduces herself as a former WAC, I'll ask the barmaid to pour her one on me. Then I'll whip out my iPhone, check the standings and see how many games my team needs to win in order to clinch a wild card berth. Actually, I don't have an iPhone yet, but as long as the University of Northern Colorado doesn't outsource my job in the next year, I'll have one soon. And that's no malarkey.

The new Stylebook is a steal at $11.75 for member news organizations, $11.75 for college bookstores and $18.95 retail.

Whether you're a student, a professional journalist or a word lover, order yours today by visiting the Associated Press Bookstore. And if you think this book -- or its online version -- is just for print journalists. AP members create and use news in print, audio, video, photo and graphic formats.

And here's some cool info for history geeks like me: The first edition of the AP Stylebook was published in 1953 and ran 62 pages. The 2008 edition features more than 300 pages. For more on the new edition and the history of the book, read the AP's press release.

Call Mumbai and find out where that story is

Just found out that The Orange County Register will outsource some of its copy editing duties to the Indian firm Mindworks Global Media.

According to a story in Editor & Publisher, the move will not affect staffing at the Register. Maybe not, but I can't imagine it not affecting morale.

This reminds me of the moves most radio stations have made in the last few years. A 2007 study by University of Colorado professor Lee Hood found that stations that once produced their own news reports now rely on news that's patched together in far-off cities. According to a University of Colorado news release, Hood said:

"News is how people learn what it means to live in 'this place.' And to have somebody who may not even have been in your community ostensibly deciding what's news in your community, well, I think that's alarming."

I can't help but agree. Now, back to the OC Register. Editing is much more than punctuation, grammar and AP style. Being a competent editor means understanding the community in which you work. How could someone in India know what's important to people in Southern California? A good editor needs to know the not just the names, but also the story behind prominent people, places and institutions. What's next? Letters to the editor being answered by a representative in Calcutta?

I'm curious what readers think.

Long live the copy desk

Finally, a story about copy editors. Happiness in five columns. Well, not exactly. According an opinion piece by Lawrence Downes of The New York Times, the news is not good for those who serve as the newspapers' "last line of defense." First, Downes laments the fact that the Newseum, the monstrous new homage to news on the Mall in Washington, fails to pay its respects to copy editors. After describing what copy editors do for a living, Downes notes that these hallmarks of newsroom history are a dying breed. It was his last line, however, that made me think:

... If newspaper copy editors vanish from the earth, no one is going to notice.

Not true! Sure, copy editors are never noticed, until they make mistakes. During my several years on several copy desks, no one ever said "nice catch on that comma in the third graf" or "great job cutting out the jargon in that police story." And the AP editors never once thanked me for letting them know when the numbers in the box scores they sent didn't add up. But, hey, I'm over it.

Several bloggers chimed in on the Downes article, including Kathy Schenck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

New York Times readers had their say, too. I particularly love this ode, from David Eggenschwiler of Los Angeles:

Praise the poor copy editors, but please don’t bury them. As print and broadcast media descend further into pop gibberish as well as routine solecisms, we need copy editors to slow the slide into bad writing as the public standard. Even with them, I wince my way through newspapers; without them, life wouldn’t be worth living.

And getting back to the Newseum. Although it doesn't boast a specific section dedicated to copy editors, it does have the next best thing. The bathroom tiles are decorated with mistakes and corrections taken from newspapers. Here's an example, from the Web site dcpages.com.

Thanks, I needed that comma

How many commas are required in the following sentence?

According to a police spokesman because the threat was made over the phone the highest possible charge would have been harassment a misdemeanor.

The sentence in question was part of an exercise in my colleague's news writing class.

Ready for the answer? Three.

According to a police spokesman, because the threat was made over the phone, the highest possible charge would have been harassment, a misdemeanor.

My colleague was unsure about the final comma, the one after "harassment." I told him I was sure that a comma was needed, but I didn't know the rule. I have a pretty good "ear" for these things, but when people want to know the rules, I'm often thrown for a loop. I decided to look this one up in my trusty Associated Press Stylebook. Here's what I found. The final two words of the sentence are a "nonessential phrase," which is always preceded by a comma. Here's the Stylebook scoop from an entry titled "essential phrases, nonessential phrases":

An essential phrase is a word or group of words critical to the reader's understanding of what the author has in mind. A nonessential phrase provides more information about something. Although the information may be helpful to the reader's comprehension, the reader would not be misled if the information were not there.

Essential phrases are not set apart with commas.

Example of an essential phrase, also from the Stylebook:

We saw the award-winning movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." (The movie title is essential to the sentence because many films have won awards. It's not obvious to the reader that the author had this title in mind when writing the sentence.)

Example of a nonessential phrase:

We saw the 1975 winner in the Academy Award competition for best picture, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." (Only one movie won the best picture award in 1975, so the title is not essential. Without the title of the movie, the reader might be confused, but the author's meaning is clear.)

In case you were wondering, the same rules apply for essential and nonessential clauses.

Great story. Can you add some words, please?

Brevity. Conciseness. Using words wisely. It's something I try to teach my students. And it's something I hope every good journalist appreciates. But what about the publishers? I guess it depends on which type of publisher you are -- the type who cares about news and understands the business or the type who buys a newspaper to make money. (Can anyone say "oxymoron"?)

It seems that the latter type of publisher is in charge of the Tribune Company, which owns the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and one of my favorites, the Hartford Courant.

A recent story in Editor & Publisher noted that the Tribune Company is planning to measure reporter productivity by the number of column-inches reporters produce. For all of you with real jobs, a column-inch is a measure used by newspaper people. It's based on a six-column newspaper page. Multiply one standard column across by one inch down and you get a column-inch. This is useful when selling adds and planning newspaper sections.

So what does the length of a story have to do with how well the reporter does his or her job? That's a good question. I mean, like, I guess I could think of something, but right now I'm much too busy padding this paragraph to impress my boss. Oh, wait, I'm sorry, I'm not a reporter for the Tribune Company. My mistake. I'll just keep those extra words in for now. No sense taking any chances. You never know who's reading.

This Slate story, which I read on a friend's facebook page, says it much better than I ever could. It's by Michael Kinsley.

I have a related story about the subject of column-inches. When I got my first newspaper job, I was paid by column-inch. I had just completed my first year of college, and I worked as a correspondent for the sports section of the now-defunct Milford Citizen in southern Connecticut. I think I made $1.05 an inch my first summer and got a huge raise to $1.15 an inch after my sophomore year. It was a great experience. I covered some interesting stories and learned a lot from sports editor Dom Amore, who now covers baseball for the Hartford Courant.

Why we do what we do... and why it's often dangerous

A lot of people go into journalism because they like to write. I agree that writing is an essential aspect of the craft. If you can't form clear, coherent sentences and combine them to create an interesting story, you won't do well as a reporter. But writing isn't really what our craft is all about.

Journalism is about getting the news to people. It's about telling them what they need to know in a timely manner. Sure, telling it well is important, too. But the fact that we tell people what's happening in their world is an essential part of society.

Two recent articles reminded me why journalism is so important to the world. One story is an old one. One story is current. Both make me proud to be a journalist. And both should be read by all current and future journalists.

The first story is that of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, one of the first investigative journalists to crusade against lynching. A new book by Paula J. Giddings, "Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching," takes a fresh look at this important American. Richard Lingeman reviews the book in this week's New York Times Book Review. Lingeman begins his review with a lead that brings the importance of Wells' work into the present:

If slavery is America’s original sin, lynching is its capital crime. The historical memory dies hard: only last year, three nooses were hung from a schoolyard tree contested by white and black students in Jena, La.

Lingeman then tells Wells' story. If you haven't heard of Wells before, you need to read this review, and maybe even Giddings' book. Wells' work was dangerous -- in 1889, a white mob attacked her newspaper office and probably would have lynched her if she had not been out of town.

More than 70 years after Wells' death, the work journalists do is still dangerous in many parts of the world. One example is in Myanmar, where journalists are putting their lives at risk to cover the effects of the recent cyclone.

Clark Hoyt, the public editor of The New York Times, discussed the problems journalists face in Myanmar in Sunday's column. Hoyt wrote that the Times' editors decided not to identify a reporter covering the devastation because they feared for his safety. Here's an excerpt about the reasons the Times didn't give the reporter a byline:

Describing the situation in Myanmar, Susan Chira, the foreign editor, said that the correspondent entered the country on a tourist visa, was changing hotels frequently to evade the authorities and was initiating all contact with the newspaper because only the correspondent could judge when it was safe to talk. “We don’t like to go around breaking (a country’s) rules arbitrarily,” she said. “It leaves our reporters vulnerable. But it’s our duty to report, so we take a calculated risk in consultation with the reporters.”
The Times finally gave readers an explanation of the Myanmar situation on Thursday, in another article without a byline, saying that the ruling military junta barred foreigners from the areas of greatest damage, that the reporter had hidden in the bottom of a boat to get to the scene, and that the reporter’s name was being withheld to avoid detection.

But Myanmar isn't the only dangerous place for journalists. Hoyt's column also discussed the situation in Zimbabwe, where a Times reporter was recently arrested for doing his job. He was arrested for trying to tell people what was happening.

Telling people what's going on allows citizens to participate in the democratic process. When despots take over governments, one of the first things they do is to grab control of the media outlets. A free press is rare, and where it does exist, it should be protected.

So if you're thinking about going into journalism, remember that it's not all about writing great leads and learning AP style. It's important work that some people are willing to risk their lives for. It's something all journalists should be proud of.

For language lovers only

The school year just ended, and I'm a bit winded from grading all those finals. I'm not teaching this summer, so I'll have lots of time to post to this blog. Meanwhile, here's a link to William Safire's latest On Language column. The problems Safire tackles here make me feel like a wannabe. Wondering about the difference between ambivalent and ambiguous? Think you know what alliteration means? I admit I'm baffled when it comes to the present perfect. And I'm still waiting for the perfect present. Maybe for my next birthday.

To cut, or not to cut?

Just had to link to this post about editors at Paper Cuts, one of my favorite blogs. It's written by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.

Some of the reader comments on this blog are classic. One of my favorites, posted by Jeremy Spencer: "Cutting is an art not easily mastered."

One question that Paper Cuts brings up is just how much editing an editor is supposed to do. After all, at some point, if the editor makes enough changes, whose copy is it? When does the editor become the writer? I remember one classmate in college who claimed that each piece was like a body part, and the act of editing was like chopping off a limb. I wouldn't go that far. But I often wonder how much editing is too much. I tell students that if they want to change a lead, they should call the author first and discuss it. But that's not a very deep discussion.

What do writers and reporters out there think? What about editors?

This just in: Indonesia has no lungs

Was reading an Associated Press story the other day about a frog that breathes through its skin. At least that's what I suspect the story meant. The grammar in the lead makes me wonder.

Here's the lead:

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — A frog has been found in a remote part of Indonesia that has no lungs and breathes through its skin, a discovery that researchers said Thursday could provide insight into what drives evolution in certain species.

According the sentence, it's not the frog but a remote part of Indonesia that has no lungs and breathes through its skin. The problem is with placement, or misplacement, if we're being technical. Whatever precedes "that has ..." is what gets modified. So I would rewrite the sentence as follows:

In a remote part of Indonesia, a frog has been found that has no lungs and breathes through its skin, a discovery that researchers said Thursday could provide insight into what drives evolution in certain species.

Oops. I just realized another problem. The sentence is passive, meaning the subject is not doing anything. Active verbs are much more exciting, but sometimes a passive sentence works well. To fix the problem, we could change it to the following:

Researchers said Thursday that the discovery of a frog that has no lungs and breathes through its skin could provide insight into what drives evolution in certain species. The discovery occurred in a remote part of Indonesia.

Passive sentences are not only boring, they're longer than active ones. If you want a reader to enjoy your story and keep reading, it's a good idea to use active verbs. One way to ensure active sentences is to avoid the words "there are" and "there is." For example, don't say "there are about 13,000 students at the University of Northern Colorado." Instead, say something like "About 13,000 students attend the University of Northern Colorado." "Attend" is a much more interesting verb than "there are."

Let's play editor

I'm so glad baseball season is back. One of my students sent me a link to this column about a statue of Chicago Cubs legend Ernie Banks. Young fans might not know that doubleheaders used to be common in the major leagues. Banks, also known as "Mr. Cub," loved the game so much that he is often quoted as saying "Let's play two." But as Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich writes, there's something very wrong with the statue.

At least they didn't spell it "Let's play to."

Show the saint some love

St. Patrick's day is Monday, in case you forgot. Before you start celebrating, you should check out this column in today's Denver Post. The author, Jimmy Hayde, is asking readers to think about the holiday in a different way. I'm curious to see what Crank readers have to say.

If you'd like to read some history about the holiday, take a look at this.

And whether you're drinking to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, March Madness or Spring Break, remember to use a designated driver. And try not to edit the menus. I'll do the same.

Crankiness is all the rave

I love letters to the editor. They are the first things I read most mornings. I like starting my day by finding out which stories have riled readers and which have hit home. It prepares me for the rigors of teaching news writing and copy editing to college students. With that in mind, I had to share a wonderful letter published in Sunday's edition of The New York Times Book Review and written by Ian Mackenzie of Brooklyn.

Here's a sampling:

To the editor:

Never have I finished an outright rave — and a front-page one at that — less convinced of a novel’s merits than I was at the end of Liesl Schillinger’s review of Charles Bock’s “Beautiful Children” (Feb. 3). It is only the latest example in a worrisome trend of slathering praise upon the prose of a certain genus of writer — Marisha Pessl comes to mind — who operates in a constant, hysterical pitch, at the expense of precision, lucidity and memorable elegance ....

Mackenzie goes on to discuss commas, nouns and metaphors, as well as the definitions of brimstone and sulfur. Who knew they were synonyms? This is the stuff of dreams for cranks like me.

Read the entire letter.

To the critic:

When I retire, I'd like you to take over this blog. Thank you for caring about the language I love.

Sincerely,

The Crank

Fun with semicolons

Just had to post a link this New York Times article about semicolons. It seems a lot of people are just gushing about the fact that a sign in the New York City subway system uses proper punctuation. I guess I would do the same if I ever saw a sign in Denver that used an apostrophe correctly.

I'm one of those who avoids semicolons. I prefer short sentences. Short sentences smack people in the eyes. They hit hard. They hit fast. They're remembered. I believe they have more impact than long, drawn-out sentences that go on for hours like one of those passages in a Faulkner novel, which I really never could understand; I tell my students to avoid semicolons for this very reason.

One of the few uses of a semicolon I endorse is when a list contains items that include commas, like the following example from the Associated Press Stylebook, edited by Norm Goldstein:

He is survived by a son, John Smith, of Chicago; three daughters, Jane Smith, of Wichita, Kan., Mary Smith, of Denver, and Susan Smith, of Boston; and a sister, Martha Smith, of Omaha, Neb.

Notice that the above sentence includes state abbreviations after Wichita and Omaha but not after Chicago, Boston or Denver. That's because, according to AP style, the latter three cities always stand alone in datelines and copy. Also notice that the abbreviations are not the same as those used by the U.S. Postal Service. AP style is tricky, but it's so much fun. Semicolons might be tricky, but they're no fun; maybe that's why I tell my students to avoid them.

Offense taken

I just can't understand how so many people can so calmly accept the media's continued use of blatently sexist and homophobic language. Today's example is a piece by business columnist Al Lewis in The Denver Post. The column, which poked fun at Douglas Bruce, a Colorado legislator who has since been censured for kicking a Rocky Mountain News photographer, had the following headline:

Girlyman Bruce deserves the boot

The headline writer got the word "girlyman" from the column, in which Lewis refers to Bruce as "a girlyman who kicks and won't say he's sorry."

As if that wasn't bad enough, the lead (or introduction) of the story reads as follows:

Douglas Bruce kicks like a little girl.

Later in the column, Lewis asks of Bruce:

"What's he going to do next? Bite? Pinch? Pull hair?

How do I hate this? Let me count the ways, term by sexist term.

First, saying someone "kicks like a girl" sounds like something I used to hear when I was young, 30 years ago. Whenever somebody tried to put down another kid by saying he "threw like a girl," I got upset, probably because I was a girl who could throw better than most boys. But seriously, the use of this put-down only serves to reinforce the tired stereotype that girls are not meant to be athletes.

Second, my 2-year-old son bites and kicks. So why not call Bruce a 2-year-old or a toddler? Or as one of my editing students suggested, why not say he had a temper tantrum. Or better yet, why not say he kicks like a little boy? Now that would be a breakthrough.

Third, the term "girlyman" is not just a tired remnant of an old "Saturday Night Live" skit. And it's not just a reference to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ridiculously self-mocking repetition of the term. It is a slap in the face to women and gay men. What is wrong with being "girly"? What's wrong with being a girl? Apparently there's something wrong with it, or else people wouldn't feel the need to use feminizing terms as put-downs.

Probably the worst thing you can say about a man is that he is not manly. And what are the most unmanly things out there? Girls and gay men. So there you go. You hear it on the playground. And from what I've been told, you hear it from college students. And I know you hear it in bars and professional settings and even family dinner tables. That's the problem.

Interestingly enough, when I contacted Al Lewis about this, here's what he told me:

I wanted to take this issue down to the pre-school level where it belongs.

I guess he did. But is that really the way to go? When a columnist for a large metro daily newspaper uses sexist language, he's simply reinforcing what's said on the playground and in the dorm room and in the bar. I try to teach my students that as journalists -- whether in public relations, advertising or news -- they have the power to tell people what's important. And that power carries with it a responsibility. How can I teach my students to be responsible when professionals break all the rules? But then again, I also teach my students to ask follow-up questions, follow AP style and write concisely. Most professional journalists don't follow those rules, either.

But this problem is bigger than journalism. The problem is a society where offensive language is ignored and sexism and homophobia are tolerated. One example of this is the fact that my students almost unanimously agreed that Lewis had every right to use these words. These are journalism students in a junior-level editing class. Some said that the author was going for effect. Yes, that's true. But as other students countered, he could have gotten the effect with other words. Some reasoned that because it was a column, Lewis had the right to say whatever he wanted. That's true. They also agreed that if it had been a news story, the editor would have the right to change the wording.

But here's my take: Shouldn't a columnist, who gets to share his opinions with the world for a living, be held to a higher standard? Just because something isn't against the law does not mean it's OK to do. And just because a professional writer does it doesn't mean you should follow along like a sheep.

I guess it comes down to your own ethical values. I'm no ethics expert, but I do know that I wouldn't want to hear my son using the words Lewis used in his column.

I wasn't the only reader offended by the column. You can read some interesting comments about the column, and see Lewis' take, at his blog.

And I'd love to see your comments on this subject. Thanks for reading.

What a bad ass

Saw the following on a bumper sticker some time ago, and I just can't stop thinking about how much an editing class would have helped the writer.

Bad ass girls
drive bad asstrucks

My old but accurate "Webster's New World Dictionary: Third College Edition," defines a "badass" as "a troublemaker, especially one who is rough, tough, mean, or sometimes, violent." The word is listed as both a noun and an adjective, and both are one word.

I don't think I'll be driving an "asstruck," thank you very much. In fact, that's one vehicle I'd prefer not to see on the road -- ever.

And here's the kicker. The bumper sticker was on the back of a Ford Escort, a car that's always said "troublemaker" to me.

Of this he is correct

Been on vacation. Sorry for the wait.

Any wordies out there who haven't read William Safire's "On Language" column? It runs every Sunday in The New York Times Magazine. I enjoyed Sunday's piece on the word "of." I especially liked the last section, in which the columnist reminds us that "could've" is short for "could have," not "could of." I see the latter all the time in student work. Spell checker won't catch that mistake, people.