rookie mistakes

As a wise editing instructor told us all in college, "Never, EVER, put anything on the screen you don't want to see in print the next morning. Ever."

 

That's a true story. I saw the newspaper that day. And, no, it was not my paper. Thank God.

 

I'll share the worst I've seen at my own college paper. (luckily for me, I can't take credit for this mistake)

One day at my college paper, a guy sent his story in the body of an e-mail. At the top of the e-mail, he wrote something to the effect of "Hey guys, here's my story, call if you have any questions... PEACE OUT BITCHES"

Well, of course, the designer who was doing the page for which the story was intended copied and pasted right from the body of the e-mail, so the next morning, in every newspaper on campus, the top story on page four opens with "peace out bitches"...

Boy did our journalism prof have a field day on the entire staff that night at the staff meeting.

 

That's a great thing for professors to tell their students, and too many of them take it for granted that the kids know it.

And for our part, if we see someone young playing with the copy or headline or something, resist the temptation to be one of the guys and laugh ... and explain why that's a terrible idea.

 

The mistake is behind you, but you can avoid it in the future. Ask for name spelling every time you get a call in story and while covering games in person, prep coaches are notorious for not knowing how to spell their players names right, ask the player instead of the coach. Had a coach who wrote a girls name down on a lineup card as Crystal, when it was in fact Krystal. She was a senior and had played for him for four years and he still didn't know how to spell her name. I found out it as a "K," not a "C," by a phone call the girls mother placed the next day. To say her mom ripped me a new one would be putting it mildly.

 

Well, see, chaz, that mom has a really short rope with me when she calls. Because you did your job, and had no reason not to expect the coach to know how to spell his kids' names. He was a source.

 

Mistakes happen all the time. The best thing about this business is that when you screw up, most of the time you get a chance the next day to do it better. We've all screwed up. At one shop, where computers were notorious for crashing a lot on deadline, I forgot to jump a story about a legendary coach who had died. In the rush of deadline, i just slapped something in the hole and pushed the page out. Next day, I felt terrible.

Here's the one thing I'll say -- and I haven't read everybody's posts, so I don't know if it's been said yet. The day you make a mistake, minor or major, and don't feel anything is the same day you need to pack up your things, go home and start looking for something else to do. Don't let it eat at you. Don't let it ruin you. But don't ever -- EVER -- let it not phase you. Pride in your own work should be more important than what your boss or readers think. Your standards for yourself should far exceed any standards others have for you. At least, that's my opinion.

 

Got the winning team wrong in the first headline I wrote at a new job. Always a great start.

 

I've told this before, but the first sportswriter I hired was at a small daily. I'd always come in and proof pages when he was on desk, since he was so new at it. The first day I didn't come in and proof pages, he had the name of one of the local schools -- also the town's name -- misspelled in a 70-point headline. We all make mistakes. We all should learn from them. I'd be afraid to count all the mistakes I've made. In my 18-month stint in news, the first month I managed to screw something up every day. The ME called me into his office after three weeks and said, "SCEditor, I don't know how you do it, but you manage to mess something up every day. But I'm impressed -- you never have the same mistake twice. At some point, you'll run out of them."

 

When I'm editing a story, here's how I save myself on the names: I do a save string on the name from the body copy, then paste it into the headline field. I don't care what the name is; it could be something as simple as "Jones" (no offense, Jones). Copy from the story and paste into the headline field. It'll save your ass.

 

I've learned over time to just ask in almost every circumstance. Even John can be spelled Jon, Brian can be Bryan and Sara can be Sarah. Simple names aren't necessarily simple, best to ask.

 

I know what your saying, but I don't ask coaches anymore if I can ask the player.