In a Changing World of News, an Elegy for Copy Editors (original) (raw)
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded inCopy editors' LiveJournal:
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| Friday, January 6th, 2012 | |
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| _7:15 pm_[antiqrule1] |
Proofreading Tests I'm a copyeditor and have always been freelance. I'm looking for work at a publishing house, but I don't know all that much about the proofreading tests. Are there any practice tests online that anyone know about? What are the tests like? (5 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Thursday, January 20th, 2011 | |
| _3:58 pm_[sapphorlando] |
Legit? Or no? My old publisher sent me the below link for copy editing certification:http://www.mediabistro.com/courses/cache/crs4982.asp?c=mbennfshI've never heard of this, but I'm not going to immediately assume anything based on that. Anyone know anything about this, or anything similar?Thanks! (2 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Wednesday, October 20th, 2010 | |
| _10:42 am_[tiptoe39] |
Quotations of written material Hi guys,I have what (to me) is a fairly straightforward request: I need whatever written policies your organizations have about quoting written material. We're trying to put one together for ours, and I am swimming upstream in a river of "fix the capital letters you don't like" that makes me maaaaaad. But regardless of what we *headdesk* decide on, seeing the language in other organizations' policies would be helpful. Thanks, and if you could mention what kind of org/publication you work for that'd be helpful too.Thanks! (2 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Wednesday, September 15th, 2010 | |
| _4:59 pm_[sapphorlando] |
These insane filmmakers must be stopped! "Police in the Bahamas believe they have found the remains of a boater who disappeared off a beach where one of the Jaws movies was filmed in the belly of a shark."(This is the graf for the RSS, so you won't find it in the article itself.) (2 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Friday, July 16th, 2010 | |
| _1:02 pm_[peculiar_writer] |
The initial lede on a brief we ran Friday:"A person whose body was found in a Collinsville apartment on Wednesday does not appear suspicious."Naturally, we didn't print it that way, but we all got a giggle out of it.Also, today I received a jury service summons (ick) that had a survey asking me, "How competent do you fill the employees of the Sheriff's Office are?"At the moment, not filling they're too competent. Oh, the South. (1 Comment |Comment on this) |
| Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 | |
| _6:03 pm_[sapphorlando] |
The phone company is going to hang me! Please be advised that payment history are not reflected on our website when logging into your account for security treason on your partActually, there's a bunch of problems with this, but that's the one that shot terror up my spine. (2 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Monday, October 26th, 2009 | |
| _2:16 pm_[queerbychoice] |
How Many Copy Editors Are Still Employed These Days? Virtually all of the copy editors I used to work with were laid off during the period from August 2008 to March 2009. I was laid off along with them, in January 2009. None of us has found long-term work yet. I'm extremely frustrated, obviously, with the severe underappreciation of copy editors in the current economy. So I'm taking out my frustration by conducting a poll. Poll #1476751 Are You Employed? Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All. Participants: 30 Are you currently employed? View Answers Yes, as a copy editor. 15(50.0%) Yes, but not as a copy editor anymore. 6(20.0%) Yes, but not as a copy editor. I've never been employed as a copy editor. 2(6.7%) No. I used to be a copy editor, but I got laid off from that position and I haven't found a new one. 2(6.7%) No. I used to be a copy editor, but I left for reasons other than being laid off. 4(13.3%) No, and I've never been employed as a copy editor. 1(3.3%) In your current or most recent position as a copy editor, what types of materials have you copy edited? View Answers Newspapers 13(31.0%) Magazines 4(9.5%) Other periodicals 4(9.5%) Advertisements 2(4.8%) Books 2(4.8%) Online materials 8(19.0%) Other 7(16.7%) Not applicable. I've never been a copy editor. 2(4.8%) Current Mood:  frustrated (17 Comments |Comment on this) |
| _5:43 am_[sapphorlando] |
bhtdmjck Check out USA Today's brilliant headline, before they fix it. (2 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 | |
| _8:26 pm_[indigosarah] |
Copy Editor's Lament http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=159902 (Comment on this) |
| Saturday, November 8th, 2008 | |
| _2:41 am_[sapphorlando] |
When you get busted, you're no longer you? From a local story:"The witness, Jose Bueno, testified at the trial of former Dolores Rodriguez-Laflamme, a former DMV clerk."So, if he's "former Dolores," then who is he now? (1 Comment |Comment on this) |
| Saturday, August 30th, 2008 | |
| _3:13 pm_[indigosarah] |
Great description of a copy editor's job From Bill Walsh, of course, in this recent article about copy editing:"A lot of the time, the drawing-out-sources-and-ferreting-out-facts gene and the tighten-it-and-polish-it-up gene aren't contained in the same person. But the job I do is important, for all sorts of reasons. You know how maddening it is when you buy a new electronic gadget and find that it's just not user-friendly, that obviously nobody bothered to let a user not involved in the original design test it out? Well, in addition to all the points of spelling and grammar and style and consistency, that's the copy editor's role: to make sure the story makes sense to somebody who doesn't already know the story." (1 Comment |Comment on this) |
| Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 | |
| _2:20 am_[lunza] |
One person's act of grammatical redemption is another person's vandalism. Moral of the story: Make sure the sign you fix isn't 60 years old and hand-painted. (Comment on this) |
| Thursday, August 21st, 2008 | |
| _7:24 am_[sapphorlando] |
By default logic, the period is masculine. Wait, what? Some people apparently feel that semicolons are girly.The quotes in this article are priceless. Current Mood: kinda girly, I guess (3 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 | |
| _11:22 pm_[sea0tter12] |
Thought y'all would appreciate this. This makes me CACKLE! *For clarity's sake -- a subeditor is what Brits call copy editors (my job).*My favorite part of what you're about to read:"I have written 350 restaurant reviews for The Times and i have never ended on an unstressed syllable. Fuck. fuck, fuck, fuck."Posted in The Guardian:This week a furious and foul-mouthed email from the Times' restaurant critic Giles Coren to the paper's subeditors went viral. And it isn't the first time. Laura Barton introduces a choice selection.( Read more...Collapse ) (4 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Saturday, July 26th, 2008 | |
| _11:50 pm_[jadaily4484] |
Looking for a job? x-posted to  journalists,  newsroomJob openingThe Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock is accepting applicationsfor a copy editor. Our focus is on newspaper excellence, with emphasison "news." We offer a newsroom where copy editors can concentrate onhoning their editing and headline-writing skills, without the addeddistractions of Web or page-design duties. Our daily news hole isenviable in its space for international, national and local news. And,Editor & Publisher named our publisher, Walter Hussman, as 2008Publisher of the Year.The successful candidate for this position on our night news copy deskmust have a bachelor’s degree in journalism or related field and atleast two years of newspaper copy-editing experience (internships count). He/she must knowgrammar and Associated Press style; be able to write accurate, activeheadlines; and pass a copy-editing test. Competitive salary is based on experience. Resumes, including a listof job references, and examples of headlines and editing should bedirected to: Sandra Tyler, news editor, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, AR 72203 or styler@arkansasonline.com.Phone: (501) 378-3886.Note: I'm not the person you'd need to contact. My boss just gave me permission to post this on here. I am, however, happy to answer any questions anyone might have. (Comment on this) |
| Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 | |
| _10:40 am_[southernwriter] | Admittedly, I don't read here every day. Now that I'm back with another question, I'm wondering why my last question appears to be the latest thing posted. Is something wrong with my LJ, or computer? I've refreshed and clicked on "20 Most Recent." Anyway, here's my question. A couple years ago, while editing a novel for a friend, I noticed very few commas, so I put them in. She told me that fewer commas is the new trend, and took them out again. When her manuscript sold and was edited by the publisher's editor, she had to put them all back. Now someone is editing my manuscript, and she wants to take out the commas. Most of them are in compound sentences, as in these examples:Outside, the mailman jumped the wash swelling along the curb, no comma and crossed to our side of the street. It wouldn't hit until it burned to the center, then the cherry would fall off, no comma and the whole thing would be wasted. He raised the volume until the music pounded against the window, no comma and caused my heart to vibrate with each beat.I would appreciate it if y'all would weigh in on this subject and enlighten me as to whether or not to follow this trend. I prefer not to have to take them out, nor put them back, any more often than I have to. Thanks. (13 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Thursday, June 26th, 2008 | |
| _7:49 pm_[southernwriter] | Making that Call Here I am to give y'all another workout. Most of you are probably too young to remember this, but way back when, phones had dials. Oh, yes. They were circular devices with ten holes to put a finger in and rotate, and they sat on the base of the phone. In order to make a call, a person had to really work that dial (never mind that if no one answered, or Lord forbid, the line was busy, meaning the person we were calling was already talking to someone else, we had to call back! There were no answering machines, Voicemail or call forwarding!) So now you know I'm so old that my elevator doesn't always reach the top any more, and therefore, I can't think of how we describe the act of making a call these days. It used to be that we "dialed." What is it now? (9 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 | |
| _12:52 am_[southernwriter] | Names ending in a vowel If I write about a family named Purdy, and I want to refer to them in plural, but not possessively, should I write:Do you remember the Purdys? orDo you remember the Purdies?I checked the web and see arguments for both. Any votes? Thanks. (6 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Monday, June 16th, 2008 | |
| _6:35 pm_[indigosarah] |
From The New York Times (4 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Friday, May 2nd, 2008 | |
| _1:14 pm_[otakushan] |
Directions in addresses I know that directions - north, south, etc - are abbreviated in numbered addresses. But what if the street is named after the town. I am editing my paper's calendar now and there is an event in West Nyack, NY, at XXX West Nyack Road. Should the West in West Nyack Road still be abbreviated? (5 Comments |Comment on this) |
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