Column italics

[0-fer]

Don't know if this has been addressed anywhere else (I looked, didn't see it, but I've been wrong before), but is there anything wrong with not italicizing column headlines? Unless I'm mistaken, I thought italics were used to separate columns from news, but the paper I'm at doesn't use them. I only mention it because people email and call me in reference to my "articles" as though they were news stories, when in actuality they are columns. Thoughts?

 

[Del_B_Vista]

Most readers do not understand the difference between stories and columns, and won't even if you attach a neon sign to it. Most papers do something to differentiate, whether it's a different headline font, a snazzy column sig or "This is a column of opinion by 0-fer. He/she can be reached at 555-5555.", but the washed masses don't understand that.

 

[0-fer]

So essentially there's no reason for concern. Thanks Del

 

[Football_Bat]

Hopefully your paper has a design that allows differentiation of columns from the rest of copy. We use a drop cap, ragged right, and a big honkin' column bug on the cover. Our readership is not exactly Algonquinian, but it usually gets the job done.

 

[shotglass]

Ragged-right copy is the best possible tool for making something "look" like a column.

On this I cannot be moved. I think.

 

[0-fer]

In case it isn't obvious, I'm a rookie in this business, and I don't know what ragged-right means. I know we don't use a dropped cap. As far as I can tell the only thing we use to differentiate is a mug and a line at the end that says, "0-fer is the Rag's ASE. He can be emailed at [email protected]" I guess that's probably enough. Just curious I guess.

 

[spnited]

O-fer.. here's a lesson for you:

Readers will always refer to what you write a "your article" whether it's a column, a gamer, or a feature.

Don't worry about it.

 

[SF_Express]

In case it isn't obvious, I'm a rookie in this business, and I don't know what ragged-right means.

Just like it sounds, it means the type is justified on the left (a straight line up and down) but that the words on the right don't follow a straight up-and-down line so the type is, well, ragged. The type you see on the Web is kind of ragged right.

 

[pseudo]

Most readers do not understand the difference between stories and columns, and won't even if you attach a neon sign to it. Most papers do something to differentiate, whether it's a different headline font, a snazzy column sig or "This is a column of opinion by 0-fer. He/she can be reached at 555-5555.", but the washed masses don't understand that.

Quoted for truth. The local metro helps out by putting "Commentary" under the column writer's mugshot in addition to the ragged-right typeset, but some people still don't get the difference.

 

[Bruhman]

In case it isn't obvious, I'm a rookie in this business, and I don't know what ragged-right means.

Just like it sounds, it means the type is justified on the left (a straight line up and down) but that the words on the right don't follow a straight up-and-down line so the type is, well, ragged. The type you see on the Web is kind of ragged right.

... and "news" copy is justified on the left and right (straight lines on each side).

 

[MilanWall]

Columns and articles? Heck, a lot of my readers don't understand the difference between an article and an ad.

 

[Bruhman]

Don't take it personally if readers confuse columns with stories and articles with ads. Just explain the differences as pleasantly as possible, without making them feel like idiots.

Even the ones who are. ;)

 

[SF_Express]

We have a number of writers. If they're not breaking news, all they write are columns. Their picture is on each one. It will surprise no one who has been around the business any length of time that we get countless e-mails regularly telling our writers to start being more objective and stop interjecting their opinions into their work.

 

[0-fer]

Thanks much for all the advice. I've looked over the paper a couple of times and it looks like the columns are ragged-right, so with the picture that seems adequate. I definitely appreciate all the info.

 

[moonlight]

Readers will always refer to what you write a "your article" whether it's a column, a gamer, or a feature.

And occasionally, a reader will offer some information and say "I think you could put that in your next column," even if you don't write columns.

 

[reformedhack]

And half the people who know what a column is will, invariably, call it a "col-yum" ...

 

[sirvaliantbrown]

I've been out at bars after work days in which I've written stories about murders or car crashes or the weather. If people ask me what my job is, I tell them; if they ask me what I write about, I tell them what I did that day; and when they leave, they'll inevitably say, "I'll look for your column tomorrow morning!"

 

[imjustagirl2]

O-fer.. here's a lesson for you:

Readers will always refer to what you write a "your article" whether it's a column, a gamer, or a feature.

Don't worry about it.

My mom's the exact opposite. She loved Chuck Culpepper and I'd told her he wrote columns. So for the longest time, she told me she loved my "column" on whatever I had written.

Not sure I've ever written a column in my life.

 

[Write-brained]

O-fer.. here's a lesson for you:

Readers will always refer to what you write a "your article" whether it's a column, a gamer, or a feature.

Don't worry about it.

And when you write an article, they'll call it a column. Had that happen to me today.

 

[fishwrapper]

Ragged-right copy is the best possible tool for making something "look" like a column.

On this I cannot be moved. I think.

I agree. All opinion should be ragged-right.