rookie mistakes

[Thanks for comin' out]

I'm just out of college too... but at my first internship, first day, first assignment.. I'm covering a golf tournament in which the owner of the course is playing. Not only do I misspell his name, I get his entire last name wrong.. So instead of Joe Smith, it's Joe Richardson. I was afraid they were going to send my ass home after 24 hours.
To make matters worse, I have to cover the second day of the tournament and have at least 25 people tell me about it.

 

[ondeadline]

Not exactly along the lines of the above posts, but: A rookie reporter was covering a major college football game for the first time after previously only covering high school games. Not knowing any better, he wrote his story, then at the bottom of the gamer, typed in the entire summary. He was embarrassed to learn that AP provides that for us.

 

[In Cold Blood]

"The other night, I spelled someone's name wrong in a headline (despite getting it right in the story) and have been beating myself up for it."

The words in () prove you're fresh out of college. Don't try to make yourself feel better because you got it right in the story. It doesn't make the mistake in the headline disappear.

But I agree with whoever said it's a good sign that you feel bad. Mistakes happen. Feel bad, move on and get it right next time.

Willie-Butch,
I wasn't mentioning that I got it right in the story to make myself feel better. Instead, it makes me feel like an even bigger idiot that I wrote the name correctly a half dozen times in the story and still spelled it wrong in the headline.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Embrace any day when you think youi got through without making a mistake.

They're few and far between in this business, even for the good ones.

 

[rascalface]

Only advice, if you're laying out papers and you need filler for the time being always make sure it says something like Heady HEEERE or Cutline NEEEDED or at best XXXX.

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."

 

[Calvin Hobbes]

Rook,

These things are going to happen with misspelling names. Glad to see everyone in your shop was cool about it.

Only advice, if you're laying out papers and you need filler for the time being always make sure it says something like Heady HEEERE or Cutline NEEEDED or at best XXXX.

If you have a cutline and put "some ****er" for a kid's name you don't have yet and it runs, you won't have a job the next day. I'm not saying this from personal experience, just passing on a story I heard that scared the **** outta me.

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

 

[In Cold Blood]

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 *******"

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 *******"...

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

 

[shotglass]

Only advice, if you're laying out papers and you need filler for the time being always make sure it says something like Heady HEEERE or Cutline NEEEDED or at best XXXX.

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 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.

 

[chazp]

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.

 

[shotglass]

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.

 

[SCEditor]

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.

 

[donaugust]

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

 

[SCEditor]

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."

 

[Bump_Wills]

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.

 

[Your Huckleberry]

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.

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.

 

[chazp]

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.

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

 

[rascalface]

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.

Because sometimes computers screw things up royally. At an old shop, there was an autosave like every 10 or 15 minutes. So if you were screwing around trying to be funny and the autosave kicked on, guess what got saved into the database?

And sometimes those things can mysteriously show up later. Wasn't there a paper in Nebraska not too long ago that ended up publishing a doubletruck full of dummy copy or XXXXXyyyyy heds because the backshop burned plates of the wrong edition number?

Free advice: don't risk it. As unlikely as it might seem, it could bite you in the ass.