Crash Course in Copy Editing

Exactly. Same here.

 

FWIW . . .

most readers believe the writers write the headlines.

 

God damn, Frank, where have you worked that had saints willing to put in the time to teach you to edit? I've had to pretty much figure things out for myself at every point in my career.

Rolling, first rule of copy editing is the same as the Hippocratic oath (DocTalk can correct me if I'm wrong). That rule is...

First, do no harm.

 

And don't change for the sake of change. I worked once with a clown who changed dashes to commas nearly every time ("It looks better that way") and changed the word(s) chance/chances to opportunity/opportunities among other things. Thankfully, I'm away from that moron.

 

Oh, on my first full-time job it was sink or swim, a half-hour lesson on layout and nothing on copy editing, and then do three preps pages that night. I became copy chief there just after my 22nd birthday and at some point realized I was teaching people and didn't really know anything. I took an editing test at a very good mid-major, arguably the best of its size at that time, and the SE graded it in front of me -- red ink everywhere, I mean everywhere -- and once he had established that I was ignorant, although he allowed that I tightened copy very well, he said, "Would you like to learn how to edit like this?" He gave me a bunch of handouts from a Kenn Finkel seminar and it opened a whole new world to me, and I began reading the books Finkel said he stole from, Zinsser and Theodore Bernstein, primarily. The SE told me that if I worked for him for two years, I could work for anyone. That'll never be the case as every SE has different taste and different needs, but 25 months later I working at that major metro mentioned earlier on this thread where the SE taught me on my tryout about the difference between technical and conceptual editing. There were a few great, old-school slots there and an excellent layout man and I learned a lot from them.

Next was the best desk I've worked on and I learned from almost everyone, not the least of whom was an occasional poster here who taught me that if you can't have fun with this, what is the point in doing it? He was one of the rare ones who took me aside. He said, "When I was new here I was just like you." I asked how. He said, "Suicidal." He told me I needed to enjoy this, or the reader probably wouldn't. Next stop, the night editor is now one of the nation's top SEs and had some rare gifts that I admired and eventually emulated. I've continued to pick up a little here and a little there, sometimes from people I'm supposed to be teaching.

Really, it is not usually a matter of someone coaching privately. Some of my early mentors yelled a lot, behavior that is generally not accepted today. The important thing is that there are role models and the willingness to study them, to ask questions, to be open to improvement even if you've been certified as a good editor. You don't have to take the attitude that you want to be a carbon copy of anyone, but recognize people's individual gifts and learn what you can from those people. In hindsight 25 years later, I can think back to that first editing mentor (red ink) and know that I had to unlearn some of the really anal-rententive fixations he had but appreciate that he taught me probably half of what I know today about word editing. He is human like all of us, an excellent editor but like everyone else flawed by ego and the baggage of his editing past. To continually deveop there must be not only a willingness to learn but to unlearn and to at some point come to the same understanding with mentors as you did with your parents, to see them as humans who did the best they could with what they had but not omniscient, not the last word on everything you want to know.

 

Oh my goodness ... get a grip. All that was being suggested is that desk jobs aren't always the ones craved by the out of college prima donna. I'm not saying desk jobs aren't great. I'm saying most college scribes dream of being a big-time writer and that in their eyes if they take a desk job to get in the door of a place they can work up to that job they see as the ideal spot.

It ain't all about you buddy.

 

Just because most college kids dream of being a "big-time writer" doesn't mean that a desk job is lower on the hierarchy. It's not. That assumption gets thrown around too much, just as it did on this thread, and it's idiotic.

There's a lot more to good journalism than whose name is on the byline, and it would do a lot of those college writers with "big-time egos" some good if they realized that.

 

Some basic copy editing thoughts:

Never assume. If you assume that something sounds right but aren't quite sure, check it.

You need more than one speed. You've got a gear for stories that come in early and you have time to pick all the fleas off of it and another for copy on deadline when you are just trying to see if it is in English and doesn't libel anyone.

You have to make deadline, after all.

You also might try practicing with some headlines before you go. That can be the biggest trick and a way you can stand out if you are good at it.

 

in your own words: "You get your foot in the door on the desk and work your way up."

that ain't suggesting crap, it's a flat-out ignorant statement on your part. i bet copy editors jusy love working with a jerk who thinks he's better than they are simply because he has a byline. and like i said, those same copy editors have probably saved your butt numerous times. and no, it ain't all about me but you obviously think it's all about you.

ass!

 

Well, he's half right.

Getting your foot in the door is never a bad idea.

But if you put your foot in your mouth after you get there --- by thinking your desk or agate job is beneath you, by not being a team player, by constantly bitching about not getting to write --- you will bury yourself.

If, however, you prove to be capable and reliable on the desk, offer occasional story ideas and help out wherever needed, you stand a good chance at being given serious consideration should a writing job open up.

 

Exactly. If you read my initial post, the whole thing, you would see that's what I was trying to say. I guess it didn't come out the right way.

But at the same time, if you think that being a desk jockey is everyone's dream you my friend are being idiotic.

 

BINGO!!!