Last Updated: June 29, 1999
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On copy editing
Our goals are the same and we have ideas to help
Copy editors around the country are still rolling with laughter about
“Never Been Kissed,” a recent film featuring a young copy editor who has
her own office and a personal assistant. Notes posted on the American Copy
Editors Society Web discussion board were quick to point out Hollywood’s
heavy dose of unreality.
How ironic it is that this movie is showing as ASNE is deep into its
Journalism Credibility Project.
But why would Hollywood show copy editors as they are? Most of us labor
into the night in anonymity, happy to check facts and catch errors, fix
grammar and make stories conform to conventions of style and usage. We
take pride in crafting headlines.
Good copy editors hold these values close to their hearts and protect
their papers’ credibility. But exceptional copy editors find ways to extend
their passion for good journalism into their newsrooms, to help find solutions
to larger problems.
The ASNE credibility study focused the attention of ACES — and, by extension,
all copy editors — on the public’s perception that too many errors of fact,
spelling, grammar and syntax get into newspapers.
ACES’ initial response to the study — posted at http://www.copydesk.
org/credibility.htm — is the work of this writer; Hank Glamann, news editor-administration
at the Houston Chronicle; John McIntyre, copy desk chief at The Sun, Baltimore;
Melissa McCoy, foreign desk copy chief at the Los Angeles Times; and Gene
Zipperlen, senior copy desk chief at the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram.
We hope you’ll take time to visit.
As you might expect, common themes run through our observations.
At the basic level, copy editors need up-to-date reference books, Internet
access and modern electronic library systems. We think that in-house seminars
and handouts — put together by copy chiefs and other deskers — can help
to teach grammar and usage to reporters, photographers and graphic artists.
The sessions can help improve the skills of copy editors, too.
We ask that copy-flow charts be drafted to even out the workload during
a shift so the desk is ready for the legitimate crush of stories breaking
as the clock nears the zero hour. Give us as much time as possible to digest
the facts, to look for inconsistencies and misuse of language, to protect
the paper from excesses and bad judgment, and to guard against the unintended
messages that even a single word can suggest.
But ACES doesn’t want to offer ideas that break no ground in getting
at the issues raised by the project. Our work is about the future and how
copy desks can help make our papers stronger.
As you move to take the project to the next level at your paper, be
sure to include representatives of your copy desks. We have ideas that
can help you to meet this challenge.
Keep the pressure on for quality control at all levels, for excellence
in writing and editing. Tap into the offbeat knowledge that copy editors
and others accumulate through the years.
Help ACES to prepare for the future by cultivating potential copy editors
with scholarships, internships and on-the-job training.
Help us to continue providing the professional enrichment that we offer
at our national conferences and at regional gatherings, through our quarterly
newsletter and other publications, and through our Web site. Support other
organizations that provide similar resources.
Nothing gets done without an exchange of information and a commitment
to be the best.
When lively discussion permeates the culture of a newsroom, any journalist,
regardless of job title, can raise any question about a story and expect
to be listened to. Let’s share good solutions to common problems, wherever
we may find them.
It’s fitting that ACES has been invited to write this column. Formed
in the spring of 1997 with a boost from ASNE, we are now an organization
of nearly 1,200 copy editors. Our mission is aligned with the goals of
ASNE’s Journalism Credibility Project, and we’re ready to help.
Cleaveland, a member of the ACES executive board, is a copy editor
at The Oregonian, Portland. E-mail her at janetcleaveland@hotmail.com.
