Outsourced editing

Wow. Didn't know this was happening.

Nielsen folds Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews

Nielsen folds Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews

What a great class

My students have outdone themselves this time. Their work on the Gree-ality Web site was above and beyond. They wrote some great stories on the City Council's impact on UNC students. They also took photos and created a video that is pretty darn hilarious, imho.

Missing the local story

Missing the local story — Again

Posted using ShareThis

Error sullies sportswriter's good name

I was excited to see that Marion Jones is attempting a comeback in basketball. According to a story by William C. Rhoden of The New York Times, Jones is practicing in anticipation of playing for the Women's National Basketball Association this summer.

Unfortunately, the story contained a major error. (It's been corrected on the Web site, but it will always be there in print.) In the original article, Rhoden wrote that the last time Jones played organized basketball was during her freshman year at the University of North Carolina in 1994-95. As a point guard, Jones was a key cog in the Heels' run to the national championship. But that was not her final season on the court.

After missing her sophomore season with a broken foot, Jones led the team to a 29-3 record in 1996-97. Jones skipped her senior year to concentrate on track. She won five medals at the 2000 Olympics but lost them all after she admitted using performance-enhancing drugs.

A simple call or e-mail to the UNC athletics department would have helped Rhoden avoid the error.

The reason I caught this error is because I covered a few ACC basketball games in 1996-97 for The Herald-Sun in Durham, N.C. Simply put, Jones was spectacular. Her speed and court savvy, combined with Tracy Reid's play in the paint, made the Heels fun to watch. And I'm not just saying that because I got my master's degree at UNC.

I love Rhoden's writing. But from now on, every time I read one of his articles, I'll question all the facts. That's why checking facts is so important.

Boy, this is annoying!

One great thing about the Internet is that anyone can be a publisher. The problem is that anyone can be a publisher. Most people have no training in the hows and whys of journalism. Take the new Facebook group I came across today. It's called "University of Northern Colorado Men's and Girl's Basketball."

Yes, you read it right. Stop spitting coffee on your computer screen.

Is it 2009, or 1959? This is insulting, people. If you don't understand why, ask yourself why it's not "boy's" basketball. It's just plain mean to refer to "men" and "girls" and expect readers to see them as equals. Get it? If not, go to the AP Stylebook. My 2009 edition has the following under the "girl" entry:

Applicable until 18th birthday is reached. Use woman or young woman afterward.

I realize many 17-year-olds attend college, but because most females at universities are 18 and older, I tell students to use "women" in reference to college students when specific age is not known. Here's another way to look at it: Would you use "boys" or "men"? Women goes with men. Girls goes with boys.

Better yet, go to UNC's athletics Web page. You won't find any "girls" or "boys." I'm getting kind of sick of having to spell this out for people. As far as I'm concerned, if women want to refer to themselves as "girls," they can go for it. But if you're trying to support a team, have a little consideration for what people of my mother's generation went through so that women could even play Division I college basketball.

The name's the same

It looks like Greeley's new mayor is Tom Norton, husband of UNC President Kay Norton. Talk about a power couple.

Anyone think Phillipsen would have won had he endorsed medical marijuana two weeks ago?

Election night at The Tribune

I spent Tuesday evening at the offices of The Tribune, Greeley's newspaper. I wanted my Reporting Contemporary Issues students to experience election night in a real newsroom. We sat in on the page 1 meeting, which was quite interesting. The planning that goes into covering events like this is fascinating. At least it is for me.

It was fun. I don't know yet what the students thought. The students laughed at some things, seemed bored by others. That's to be expected, I guess.

I got a little bit nostalgic being there. Wonder if I'll ever work in a newsroom again. Probably not. I hope my students do.

Found out recently that two students in the class are interested in copy editing. Anyone need an intern?

I'm excited about the Greeley mayor and City Council races. The mayor's race is too close to call. The latest results are available at the Weld County Web site.

We are online

My students have completed the first series of stories for our Gree-ality Web site. The stories are profiles of the candidates running for City Council. More to come after the election.

Someone likes what we're doing

Greeley blogger Jane Paudaux likes our student blogs.

Students blogging City Council

My Reporting Contemporary Issues class has begun blogging. They are covering Greeley's City Council. The meetings are the first and third Tuesdays of the month. So far students have only blogged on one meeting. Their second post is due by midnight tonight. Click on the link on the left to view the blogs.

I like the idea of blogging on deadline. It allows students to cover a meeting in a new way. We'll see how it goes.

Students in this class will also be publishing a Web site focused on how City Council elections will affect UNC students. Candidate profiles will begin running next Tuesday. I'll link to the site once the first story is published.

Journalists must change thinking

Great read here by Alan D. Mutter about how journalists can keep their craft alive, if only they begin to think differently.

Apps for journalistic iPhone fans

Just saw this at Poynter online -- the best apps for journalists who use the iPhone or iPod Touch. There is also a link to the best Blackberry programs for journalists, if you're so inclined. I checked out the AP Stylebook app, but it seems to be pretty pricey.

Farewell to a language guru

New York Times veteran William Safire was a great writer. He died last week. Safire was a speechwriter in the Nixon White House and later won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He also was the longtime writer of the "On Language" column in the Times magazine. Maureen Dowd's column is a great sendoff. Or is that send-off? If only I could ask Safire.

I won't add any unnecessary adjectives to describe him because they might cause Safire to turn over in his grave. I will, however, tip my AP Stylebook to the man who penned both “nattering nabobs of negativism” and “hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.”

The ultimate mistake?

Has there EVER been a better protest sign than this one?

If you can find a better example of bad proofreading, let me know.

Headline too hot to handle

I often tell students that good headline writers have dirty minds. Headlines often have double meanings that their authors did not intend. The headline at right, which ran recently in Greeley's Tribune, proves my point.

"UNC prof works to get boys hot about reading," might have seemed innocuous enough to the person writing it, but readers unfamiliar with the story under the headline could easily infer a double meaning.

This point is particularly poignant in light of recent news from the University of Northern Colorado, where a theater professor was arrested and charged with unlawful sexual contact with a child and sexual exploitation of children after he was accused of videotaping young men urinating in his house. The professor is on indefinite paid suspension and is banned from campus. I have no comment on the professor's case.

One way to avoid double meanings in headlines is to make sure several editors read them before they are published.

King Soopers update

The higher-ups at King Soopers must read this blog. Either that, or they hired a copy editor. The billboards visible off Sixth Avenue in Denver and Lakewood now read correctly:

The freshest produce ... every day!

You see, we can change the world.

In case you missed it, see the erroneous billboard in my earlier post.

Do you see what I see?

Copy editors don't just edit stories. They are supposed to edit every bit of news that goes into the publication. This includes headlines, informational graphics and even turn lines, the instructions that tell people where to go for the rest of the story. You would not believe how often those things are WRONG. Some editors are particularly picky. When I was a sports copy editor, I used to add up the numbers in the box scores and call the Associated Press when they didn't make sense. As you might imagine, they loved hearing from me on deadline.

Another thing that copy editors are SUPPOSED to edit is the cut lines. These are the words that go under or next to the photographs -- what most people refer to as "captions." Cut lines are important because many people look at the pictures before reading the story, and many don't even read the story. That's why you have to identify people fully in cut lines.

I always tell students that they should NEVER, under any circumstances, write cut lines without viewing the photo. This tip would have helped with the photo/cut line combination at right. The photo is headlined "August 2: Nationals @ Pirates," and the cut line reads as follows:

Josh Willingham strokes an RBI double off Pirates pitcher Jesse Chavez in the eighth inning.

It's a photo from Major League Baseball's official Web site. You can clearly see that the back of the batter's shirt says "Cedeno." If you know baseball pretty well, you will see right away that the batter is wearing a Pirates uniform. So why does the cut line refer to him as "Josh Willingham," and why does it say that he is hitting off a Pirates pitcher?

A good copy editor, and a good photographer for that matter, would have looked at the photo and noticed that it wasn't Willingham. Then he or she would have gone to the Pirates Web site and checked on Cedeno. The last step would have been to check the box score, also available at the team's Web site, to find out who the pitcher was and what team he played for.

Guess what? I checked it. Took me about two minutes. It turns out that shortstop Ronny Cedeno, number 13, hit a homer on Aug. 2, off pitcher Collin Balester of the Washington Nationals. He did not have a double, but he did drive in two runs. Josh Willingham also played that day. He played left field for the Nationals, and he hit a home run, but not off Jesse Chavez. He hit a double off Chavez, who pitched 1.2 innings for the Pirates . Oops.

The moral of the story? Check everything. And if you're writing a cut line, don't forget to look at the photo.

Your billboard is wrong ... every day

TO: King Soopers marketing director
FROM: The Cranky Copy Editor
DATE: Aug. 8, 2009
RE: Misspelling in your billboard

The offending billboard reads as follows:

King Soopers
The freshest produce ... everyday

You should have used "every day." Here's a hint from "The Media Writer's Handbook" by George T. Arnold: If you can substitute "each" for "every," use two words.

I hope your next billboard will be better edited. Perhaps you would like to hire one of my former students. Many are looking for jobs.

Where have all the fact-checkers gone?

One of the most important jobs of a copy editor is fact checking. The New York Times must need some new copy editors. Seven errors in a story about Walter Cronkite? Uncle Walt must be rolling in his grave. Clark Hoyt, the paper's public editor, discussed the problem in this week's column.

This is really depressing to me. When I worked at the copy desk of the Indiana Daily Student, my college paper, we checked EVERY name. Does anyone do that anymore? Is fact checking "so last century"? If so, that's pretty sad. Reader comments would be appreciated.

Misplaced Hall-of-Famer

As a Red Sox fan, I'm thrilled that Jim Rice is finally being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend. As an editor, I'm appalled at the headline about the story on the team's official Web site.

Click on the image at right to see the offending headline. It reads: "Years in making, Rice ready for day in sun."

What we have here is a misplaced modifier. The phrase "years in the making" is supposed to modify Rice's "big day." But modifiers are supposed to appear next to the words they modify. This means that readers might incorrectly infer that the phrase is modifying Rice himself. A better headline would be "After 15-year wait, Rice ready for day in sun."

For more on misplaced modifiers, visit one of my favorite blogs, Grammar Monkeys, at the Wichita Eagle.

And in case you were wondering, longtime left fielder and Red Sox captain Rice is being enshrined with base stealer extraordinaire Rickey Henderson and 1942 MVP Joe Gordon. The ceremony is set for 1:30 p.m. Eastern time Sunday.

Goodbye to a legend

I came of age after Walter Cronkite had already retired as anchor of the evening news, but I still appreciate what he did. You can view his greatest moments and see for yourself.

I really enjoyed the appreciation in today's New York Times by Verlyn Klinkenborg. Here's my favorite part:

Some deaths end only a life. Some end a generation. Walter Cronkite’s death ends something larger and more profound. He stood for a world, a century, that no longer exists. His death is like losing the last veteran of a world-changing war, one of those men who saw too much but was never embittered by it. Walter Cronkite’s gift was to talk to us about what he saw, and we are very lucky to have been able to listen.

Unfortunate, but all too true.

Thanks, Uncle Walter, for all you gave journalism.

Which is it?

I enjoyed a recent scathing book review in The New York Times. Janet Maslin really took it to Chris Anderson, author of "Free: The Future of a Radical Price," and Ellen Ruppel Shell, author of "Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture."

But Maslin made an error that made my crankiness rear its ugly head. The reviewer chided both authors because they referred to the same story but told it in different ways. I kept waiting for Maslin to tell readers which retelling was correct. She didn't. In the journalism business, that's called a "hole" -- a question that should have been answered but wasn't. I also like to refer to it with the technical term "bad reporting."

The case in point involves a research study by Dan Ariely. According to Maslin, the books she reviewed had the story as follows:

According to “Cheap” he offered his subjects a choice between the 1-cent Kiss and a 26-cent Ferrero Rocher hazelnut. At those prices the test subjects were divided 40 percent to 40 percent, with 20 percent opting for neither. Then the prices came down by one penny each, and 90 percent of the subjects took the free chocolate. Only 10 percent chose the higher-priced brand.

And here's what Maslin says about "Free":

In its “Free” version the non-Kiss candy is a Lindt truffle initially priced at 15 cents while the Kiss cost a penny; 73 percent of subjects chose the truffle and 27 percent picked the Kiss, with nobody abstaining. Then the prices were lowered by 1 cent each, and 69 percent of the subjects chose the free Kiss.

So which story is correct? Well, after about five minutes of Google searching, I found out. The study, written by Kristina Shampanier and Nina Mazar, as well as Ariely, described TWO experiements. The first involved a Lindt truffle, as Anderson says, but he got the price wrong. It was originally 14 cents, not 15. The second involved a Ferrero Rocher, just as Shell said. And she got the prices right.

Good copy editors either send stories with holes back to the authors for fixing or fill the holes on their own. Today's lesson: Don't leave holes in stories. If you leave readers guessing after reading a story, they might not come back next time.

Great language blog

Found a great new language blog, Grammar Monkeys. Well, it's new to me. Don't know how "new" it is. It's by the Wichita Eagle's copy editors. Today's entry is about noun/pronoun agreement, which almost all my students need to work on.

The perils of proofreading while driving

Just moved into a lovely neighborhood with an unfortunately ugly sign. We have a beautiful stream, hundreds of trees and lots of grass. We also have a missing apostrophe and an unclear sentence. The Volkswagen Beetle-sized sign warns drivers not to park on the road that runs through the neighborhood. It ends with the following sentence:

Violators will be towed at owners expense.

I'm not sure what the sign's author means by "violators." To me, this means that the people violating the rule will be towed. Ouch! That sounds rather unpleasant and should act as quite a deterrent. But that can't be what the author means. Not unless the owners of this place are prone to violence. More likely, they're prone to typos. We're talking about the cars being towed. So why say "violators"? Why not say "violators' vehicles"? It has a nice ring to it, don't you think? I guess the author was in a hurry and had no time to hire a proofreader.

On to the missing apostrophe.

"Owners" is the plural form of "owner." It means more than one owner. So if someone parks in the wrong place, violators will be towed.

But who will pay for said towing? I'm not sure. I think it should be "owners' expense." The "s" followed by the apostrophe indicates possession by several owners. I did not use "owner's," which is singular, because "violators" implies that more than one owner is paying. One violator usually means one owner. Although one car could be owned by two or more people, one person probably does not own every car illegally parked on a road. I'm sure it could happen, but I don't anticipate it.

Apostrophes not only indicate possession, they also let readers know when a letter or letters have been removed. For instance, the apostrophe in "doesn't" replaces an "o." Don't use apostrophes to indicate plurals. As with any punctuation mark, when you see yourself using one, take a moment and ask yourself why. If you don't know, check your trusty grammar/punctuation guide. Here are a few good ones:

• Media Writer's Handbook: A Guide to Common Editing and Writing Problems, by George T. Arnold. The book includes chapters on the basics and loads of writing tips.
• Associated Press Stylebook, edited by Darrell Christian, Sally Jacobsen and David Minthorn. Includes a 41-page punctuation guide.
• Working with Words: A Handbook for Media Writers and Editors, by Brian S. Brooks, James L. Pinson and Jean Gaddy Wilson. Includes chapters on the basics, style, mechanics and writing.

You could call it that

Just found a great miscue in The New York Times. The story is about college basketball player Luke Harangody, who decided to return to Notre Dame for another year.

My paper copy had the following sentence:

That meant Harangody could work out for teams, attend the daft combine and receive feedback from N.B.A. executives on his draft status without forfeiting his N.C.A.A. eligibility.

I've never been to the draft combine, but I suppose it could be daft. Must I remind people that this is yet another error that was caused by checking spelling and not proofreading?

Words, words, words

Interesting column on words in today's New York Times.

It's not the number of words, it's the way we use them.

Another reason to learn punctuation

This punctuation error was worth about $1 million. Actually, it was worth $200, but that's a lot of money for a punctuation mark.

Either she was really nervous or she never took my class. Probably both.

For the record: A colon introduces things. A period is a stop. A comma is a pause.

Now annoying: Flight stupid from Denver

Took mom to the airport today. Because she has a bad back, she was told she had the opportunity to "pre-board" the plane. When I heard that, I thought I might keel over and require the use of her wheelchair.

Attention all airport employees, especially those with access to microphones: "Pre-board" is not a word. The act of boarding is still "boarding," whenever it takes place.

If you board late, is that "post-boarding"? Doesn't make any sense, does it? It's the same with "pre-board." That's why the use of "pre-board" should be banned. Instead, people should be allowed to board early. Is that so difficult to say?

I hope everyone out there will inform airline personnel whenever they hear this offending term. Thanks.

Finally!

I hate to use exclamation points. To say they are overused is an understatement. It's easy to stick an exclamation point at the end of a sentence, but that doesn't make the sentence exciting. If the words are exciting, there's no need for a punctuation mark.

But this is one time when an exclamation point is called for. I just finished putting the 410 Forum site online. Putting together a Web site is no easy task. But if you're hoping to be a journalist, it's something you have to understand and experience. I hope by completing this project, I can do a better job teaching my students about what they'll be doing in the real world.

The Forum is a way for students in my Advanced News and Feature Writing class to learn a little about online publishing and get their work published on the Web.

The site was designed by Tom Trelogan, a philosophy professor by day and our college webmaster by night. Thanks, Tom, the site looks great! Thanks also to Nick Eastham, an instructional designer with the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning. Tom and Nick answered many, many questions for me.

Thanks especially to my JMC410 students, who did a wonderful job this semester. I am so impressed with all of you! I really learned a lot this semester, and I hope you did, too.

Worth reading

I haven't been reading William Safire's On Language column as often as I used to. His stuff just isn't as interesting to me as it used to be. But I'm glad I got past the lead of today's piece, in which the New York Times language guru discusses some interesting new books on language.

I'm most intrigued by two of the titles. The first is Carol Fisher Saller's "The Subversive Copy Editor," of which Safire writes:

It’s an insider’s book to cure writers who can’t stand “damnable nitpicking” while shoring up editors with “it’s not the author’s right to offend or confuse the reader, defy the rules of standard English, fail to identify sources or lower the standards of your institution.”

I don't think I've ever met a "damnable nitpicker" myself. Myself? Oh, yeah, myself.

The second book I'm interested in is "100 Words Almost Everyone Mispronounces," by the editors of American Heritage Dictionaries. Some of the words they discuss, according to Safire, are "almond" (don't pronounce the "L") and "often" (leave out the "T).

I hope they take on "height." I cannot stand to hear it mispronounced as "heighth." Do you say "weighth"? No. Why not? Because neither "height" nor "weight" includes a -th. You do say "depth" and "width. (Note the -th in each.)

I guess that's enough nitpicking for today.

What did they learn?

My Advanced News and Feature Writing class has gone really well. The class, which is the capstone for news-editorial students, will soon publish its very own news Web site, the 410 Forum. As part of their final project, I asked students to blog about what they learned in the JMC major. And guess what? They learned a lot. They also offered some advice for those starting the program. Check the posts out on the right-hand menu, just below my profile.

Photo by Trent Gillespie.

A style all its own

New York Times public editor Clark Hoyt discusses his paper's style manual in this week's column.

Here's what I think:

I still can't understand why the Times uses courtesy titles in every section but sports. And why on Earth do they continue to refer to Queen Elizabeth II as Queen Elizabeth 2nd? And while we're at it, when will the Times begin using modular design? Oh right, that's so 20th century. Better to figure out how to make money on the Web.

I'll take a slice

Thank the sports gods, baseball season is here at last, and with it comes the first of many editing errors, I'm sure. The New York Mets opened their new ballpark to much fanfare. On Monday night, Hall-of-Famer Tom Seaver threw the ceremonial first pitch to Mike Piazza, who should be in the Hall in a few years.

A brief story in The New York Times referred to the big-hitting catcher as "Pizza" in the third paragraph. The error has been cleaned up on the Web site, but it made it into my national edition Tuesday morning. I guess that's an easy one to misplay. The spell-checker won't catch it. That's why I continue to remind my students that spell-checking is NOT editing.

One at a time, please

I saw some really stinky mistakes today while perusing a certain sporting goods store, which shall remain nameless because I have no idea what it was called.

The following line appeared on a bunch of TOILET SEATS that were emblazoned with the colors and numbers of some NASCAR drivers:

Drivers seat

And saw the following on a couple of seats that sported NFL colors and logos:

Coaches seat

I don't think those things are made for more than one person to use at once. The presentation was advertising plural drivers and plural coaches. What I mean -- for you non-grammar geeks out there -- is that the seats literally advertised that they were made for more than one driver and more than one coach.

What they should have been advertising was the singular possessive format -- that the seat belonged to one driver or one coach. The proper usage would be the following:

Driver's seat

Coach's seat

Of course, if drivers and coaches want to go two at a time, that's fine with me. I'm just glad they didn't have any in my team's colors. That would have been really embarrassing.

Now, I'm not going to get all riled about why in the world somebody would want to advertise his or her favorite team on a toilet seat. Seems to me you'd want the other team's logo for that. But that's a conversation for another blog.

Students on the Web

The Advanced News & Feature Writing class is the capstone class for journalism students with an emphasis in news-editorial -- what we used to call "print journalism." The emphasis is really about learning how to report, write and present news that's factual and easy to read.

Every year my students write great stories, but most don't get published. So this year, we've decided to create a class Web site. With the help of our college webmaster, Tom Trelogan, the site should be up and running soon. This will give students a chance to showcase their work to prospective employers.

Blogs are another way for students to show off their talents. My students have created blogs about the beats they're covering. It's a way for them to reflect on what they're doing in the class. You can do something well but not take the time to figure out why and how. This project will force students to ask themselves some important questions about what they're learning and what they can improve on. And it's a great way to practice writing for the Web.

We've got an interesting mix of beats. Mindy Day is covering the small town of Hudson. Desiree' Beckett and Trent Gillespie are tackling religion. Dan Mauro and Drew McConnell are two of the many students examining the arts. We've also got a few students covering sports. Paige Mackenzie writes about snowboarding, and Rebecca Skeim covers lacrosse. And for something that truly says "Northern Colorado," check out Kelli Osgood's blog on the cattle industry.

Check out all the blogs on the menu at right titled "Student Blogs."

Editor makes prize from mistakes

Just heard this funny bit from StoryCorps, a nonprofit project that collects stories told by ordinary people. And, in case you copy editors were wondering, the name is indeed one word with a capital "C."

In this story, a retired Miami News editor explains what happened when a pre-printed section turned out to contain several factual errors. He also provides some advice for would-be journalists.

E&P does a big, bad boo-boo

(T)wat the? Just got this from a journalist friend. Hope they correct it soon, or they'll turn off a lot of people, including some Tweeters!

Below is copy I copied and pasted directly from the E&P Pub, which is a site related to Editor and Publisher, the biggest journalist mag out there.

Now They Tell Us

We just started tweeting with all the other twats, and now we see this new video...

Update: They just changed it to "twits." I guess that's better.

March 23, 2009

Now They Tell Us

We just started tweeting with all the other twits, and now we see this new video..

And then there's this, which shows Stephen Colbert on the Today show.

Crank wins award

The following lead is from a story in today's Mirror, UNC's student newspaper, written by my former student, Eric Heinz.

Known for her grueling, but rewarding, journalism classes, Lynn Klyde-Silverstein, an assistant professor for UNC's Journalism and Mass Communications program, was recently awarded Educator of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists' Colorado Chapter.

What kind of system allows someone like me to win an award like this? Have to stay cranky, just to keep up the old reputation.

Some happy news for a change

Who says the newspaper industry is dying? The University of Northern Colorado's campus paper, The Mirror, is celebrating its 90th birthday this weekend. Congratulations, Mirror!

Today's paper includes a history of the publication written by news editor Joshua Espinoza. Considering what's been happening with the news industry lately, I think these words are important to remember:

... the content and aesthetics of The Mirror have evolved and adapted with the times. The writing style has changed; the layout has changed; and the location has changed. But what has stayed consistent for the past nine decades is The Mirror's mission to inform, educate and entertain the community members University of Northern Colorado.

Later, Espinoza reminds us how important newspapers can be:

Having been an essential part of campus life since 1919, the publication has served as a barometer of student opinion on everything from routine occurrences like presidential elections and local politics, to the most memorable events in recent American history - including the Great Depression, World War II, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Act, the Columbine shootings and Sept. 11. The students of UNC have been able to view - as if through a metaphorical mirror - the ways in which these national milestones have personally affected them, for better or worse, through the peer-written commentary of The Mirror.

Thanks Josh, for reminding me why I love newspapers. And thanks to the Mirror staff members, past and present, for keeping the UNC community informed and entertained for 90 years.

Say it ain't so

Sad to say, Denver's first newspaper -- and the state's oldest business -- published its last edition today. Today's issue is a keeper, though. Full of great stories about and from the publication's storied past, as well as all of today's news. The front page features a goodbye to readers, framed by the first front page of the first edition, published April 23, 1859.

Just saw the photo on the Rocky's home page, and it's an empty newsroom. Makes me feel a little sick.

Here's an excerpt from the front-page goodbye:

To have reached this day, the final edition of the Rocky Mountain News, just 55 days shy of its 150th birthday is painful. We will scatter. And all that will be left are the stories we have told, captured on microfilm or in digital archives, devices unimaginable in those first days. But what was present in the paper then and has remained to this day is a belief in this community and the people who make it what it has become and what it will be. We part in sorrow because we know so much lies ahead that will be worth telling, and we will not be there to do so.

Rest in peace, Rocky. May your spirit live on in journalists for generations to come.

Whom, I?

Many people have trouble figuring out whether it's proper to use "I" or "me" in certain grammatical situations. And according to an op-ed piece in yesterday's New York Times, even presidents make the mistake of using "I" when they should be using "me." One reason the authors, Patricia T. O'Connor and Stewart Kellerman, offer for this error is what they call "hypercorrection:"

Then, why do so many scofflaws keep using “I” instead of “me”? Perhaps it’s because they were scolded as children for saying things like “Me want candy” instead of “I want candy,” so they began to think “I” was somehow more socially acceptable. Or maybe it’s because they were admonished against “it’s me.” Anybody who’s had “it is I” drummed into his head is likely to avoid “me” on principle, even when it’s right.

Another mistake along the same lines occurs when people write "whom" instead of "who." I think writers do this because they think using "whom" makes one appear more learned. Like when people use big words that they don't understand, just to impress the readers. Not that my students ever do that.

I don't mind it when I hear these mistakes in spoken language. We simply don't have enough time to edit ourselves when we talk. It's when you make mistakes like these in writing that brings out the crank in cranky editors like me. I'm sure many will disagree. I have a friend who is an English professor, and she cannot stand to hear "can I" when "may I" is preferred. I can take it or leave it. Does that mean someone will come along and take away my "grammar junkie" card?

Now don't get me wrong. I can't stand to hear people say things like "I seen that" and "It don't make no difference to me." Double-negatives also give me the willies. One has to draw the line somewhere.

What makes you cranky?

With a name like 'craigslist,' what do you expect?

Someone in my house has been printing out ads from craigslist. Either she' s looking to move, or she wants me to edit the ads. I hope it's the latter. Three of the four ads contained misspellings. I have a special prize for the author of the first ad, who threw in a second mistake for free.

"Heat included in Rent/Move in Speicial/ Avalible now..."

"OAKBROOK APARTMENTS: Unfirnished..."

"$500 Funished Studio Apartment ..."

I hope you're as appalled as I am.

So please, dear readers, if you're going to post something on the Internet, proofread it for goodness sake. And if you're not a born editor, ask a friend -- or an editing teacher -- to proof it for you.

Worth reading

I just finished "Black and White and Dead all Over" by John Darnton. What a read! It's a mystery that starts with the murder of one of the assistant managing editors at what appears to be a thinly veiled reference to The New York Times. What I love about this book are the details the author includes about how newsrooms used to be, and the longing the old timers seem to have for the "good old days." I remember hearing about those days at the Connecticut Post.
Cigarette butts hanging off desks, booze bottles stuffed inside drawers, reporters returning to the newsroom to file stories after their three-martini lunches. (No, wait, my bad. That last one happened several times when I worked there.)

This book has it all for old timers: the composing room, the pneumatic tubes, the typewriters. And can you believe the AME is found with an editor's spike rammed into his chest? If you know what an editor's spike is, you will love this book. If not, you might learn something.

One of the funniest tidbits Darnton uses is the fact that several of the "dinosaurs" -- journalists who've been there since the old days -- keep yellowed copies of what is considered the worst lead ever written at the paper. When work is slow, one of them will open a drawer and take it out and read it. Guffaws follow. Reminds me of the editor who, during a lull, used to yell across the newsroom, "Nixon just died!" At least he never did it on my deadline. Then there was the editor who used a line gauge (a fancy name for an editor's ruler) to open his soda can. (Hey, it makes sense. He never cut himself.) And then there was the story about the reporter who covered the Earthquake World Series in 1989. When the editor finally heard from said reporter after hours of wondering his fate, he asked for the story before asking how he was. How can you miss things like that?

What's next? Thespacebetweenwords?

Government officials in Birmingham, England, have voted to ban apostrophes in road signs. According to an Associated Press story, the officials spent so much time during meetings trying to figure out which place names needed apostrophes, they couldn't get anything else done.

I love the wordplay used by the AP writer, Meera Silva:

LONDON – On the streets of Birmingham, the queen's English is now the queens English.

England's second-largest city has decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they're confusing and old-fashioned.

But some purists are downright possessive about the punctuation mark.

I wouldn't say I'm possessive. Fanatical, maybe. But not possessive.

'Your' an idiot

Stupid people should not be allowed to create bumper stickers. I was driving to work this morning and saw the following:

If your going to
ride my ass
pull my hair

I'm going to market my own sticker, but this one will be for smart people:

If you're going to
put something idiotic on your automobile,
at least use proper punctuation.

I guess I'll have to edit it down to fit. Any suggestions?

Which America do you mean?

I love the crossword puzzle in The New York Times. And, being a news geek, I love it even more when the puzzle includes themes on current events.

The last three weeks have included two Sunday puzzles dedicated to the election of Barack Obama. The first was a little tough. The theme was states that voted for Obama. The states' postal abbreviations (not AP style abbreviations) were included in circles throughout the puzzle. Great idea. Then on Inauguration Day, the puzzle focused on Obama himself, including references to "The Audacity of Hope," the U.S. Senate and Vice President Joe Biden.

But Tuesday's puzzle also had what I consider to be a major editing mistake. I can't remember the exact clue, but it was something like "Obama's title beginning Jan. 20, 2009." The answer was "President of America." Last I heard, the name of our country was the United States of America. "America" refers to the continents of North and South America. Obama is not the president of North and South America. People who live in countries like Canada, Mexico, Peru, Honduras and Greenland take offense to this type of thing. (Yes, Virginia, Greenland is part of North America.) And I find don't like it, either, thank you very much.

If we're going to take back our place in the world, let's start with being more sensitive about things like this.

I realize that like headlines, crossword puzzle answers must fit, but that's why they're so demanding to compose. If the writer of the puzzle couldn't find a good answer that fit, he or she should have rephrased the question.

Punctuation: The 'so what?' question

OK, I admit it. I like punctuation. But what word lover doesn't? Bad punctuation can ruin a sentence.

A lot of students, and non-students, wonder why some people are so hung up on punctuation. The reason seems clear to me: Punctuation makes written communication easier to understand. Without proper punctuation, a sentence can lose its meaning, and that's the last thing a good communicator wants. Here's an example I used during the first week of classes this week.

Read the following setence aloud, and try to figure out what it means:

A woman without her man is nothing.

Got it? Good. Now, scroll down and read the same sentence with different punctuation, and see how the meaning changes.

-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-

A woman: Without her, man is nothing.

See the difference proper puncutation makes? Hope you enjoyed that one.

Male author offers advice. Get it?

During the holiday break I taught an online sports writing class. It went well. Most of the students did all the work and showed improvement. I might just do it again next year.

So why am I going on about this? Well, I wanted to share a little something about our textbook for the course, “The Sports Writing Handbook,” by Thomas Fensch. It was a very good book. I think it provided a great overview of the subject. It even included a chapter entitled "Guidelines for Writing about Women." I was thrilled when I saw this. Then I read the chapter. I should have known what I was in for when I realized it was only four pages long. The book is more than 250 page in all. But I digress. Even though the chapter is short, Fensch does make some good points. He urges readers to avoid "othering," which means to write as if female athletes are the exception to the rule. An example Fensch uses is to avoid the following:

Arthur Ashe was a great tennis player. Billie Jean King is a great female tennis player.

I use similar examples in class. The above implies that when you say "tennis player," you're saying "male," and when you add "women," you're not really talking about "real" tennis players. It implies that because she is a woman, King is somehow less of a tennis player. I'm not saying King could beat Ashe, although she did kick Bobby Riggs' sorry behind, but that's another story.

And Fensch gives a great piece of advice when he says the following:

When you have completed a story about a woman, go through it and ask yourself whether you would have written about a man in the same style. If not, something may be wrong with the tone or even the conception of your article. Think it through again.

That's good advice for all writers, not just those in the sports section. It's all great advice when writing about people of color, those with disabilities, gay men and lesbians, and any other group that's taken it on the chin in the past.

One more thing about Fensch's book. The chapter that immediately follows the one on women is about writing advance stories. On the very first page of this chapter, in his list of guidelines for writing advances, Fensch warns reporters to be on the lookout for teams that schedule "weak sisters."

What does he mean by a “weak sister”? I’ve never heard this term before, but I guess it means a weak opponent. I wonder why it’s not a “weak brother”? I’m assuming that whoever came up with this term used sister instead of brother because girls are traditionally seen as weaker than boys. The fact is, however, that many girls are stronger than many boys. Furthermore, the use of the term, especially in sports writing, serves to reinforce the stereotype that girls are not meant to be athletes. Things like this turn girls off to sports and further the stereotype that sports are a male domain.

I’m not trying to nitpick the book to death. What I’m trying to do is show how important words can be. The way we use words matters. I find it ironic but sad that this example came right after the chapter on avoiding sexist language. Funny. Or maybe not. What do you think?