STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Maddie · Coach

I'm so pissed...

Hermione · Kate Spade

Yeah, I'd be pissed about that too. Wait until you calm down so you don't come across as rude ans mention it the next time you turn in an article. i'm surprised such a blatant mistake would be made, let alone go unnoticed, by an editor.

NCshopper · Hermes

Ooh, that sucks and you have reason to be pissed. No one should have touched the contents of your article without your express permission.

To make you feel better though, the mistake isn't huge and it isn't terribly glaring. Is it the best way to say that? No. Would you have written that? No. But I honestly think it will go unnoticed by most people.

I'd definitely talk to her about it after you take a few deep breaths. You have every reason to be ticked they changed your article in the first place and it's something that should be brought to their attention so that it doesn't happen again.

manhattanmonkey · Kenneth Cole

I understand!!

I wrote a feature article on non-traditional students last fall as the final in one of my classes. I submitted it for publication to our school paper first thing at the beginning of the semester a week before the first paper would be underway.

The editor had plenty of chances to contact me about anything and I was shocked to see a few lines altered. In the process, a couple mistakes in the article that I'm always conscious of and was slightly fumed since I didn't submit it like that.

It's just part of the job I suppose.

she_wears_pink · BCBG

Something similar happened to me too. I was pissed and embarrassed.

Dizzy · Marc Jacobs

Something similar happened to me every day for eight years - it's the culture in journalism. Editors have final control over the written story, copy editors can change anything they want without asking, reporters just have their names on it and take the heat. And there's some sort of universal human instinct to change SOMETHING about another person's writing, even if the change in no way makes a difference. Although they might have been trying to make it fit journalistic style, which is a whole other barrel of horror stories. As for the printing issues - that happens when they slap it on a page and only check the page on the computer, instead of printing it out and reading it carefully. On the computer, you usually can't tell that the story ends midsentence, it looks like it fits.

PS - Maddie sweetie, of course you know that if you want to stay in journalism, do not complain about this. Just nicely mention they must have been really busy when they put the paper down, since the lines wer cut off, which is so easy to do (you know the drill by now, I'm sure) and ask if her editorial changes reflect any style things you should remember...

-- Edited by Dizzy at 19:06, 2006-02-08

Maddie · Coach

Thanks for your replies, everyone. I'm not that upset anymore because it wasn't an article about anything I cared about. And I don't really care about her changing stuff that much, just when she changes it to blatantly bad writing.

And Dizzy, I've changed my mind again (as I have a tendeny to do) and am no longer particulary interested in journalism. Not because of this (even I'm not that dramatic), but my impression is just that it's kind of a dying industry.

halleybird · Hermes

Well, Dizzy is right, but it sucks nonetheless. A good copy editor would never let that happen.

Something similar happened to me when I was writing for a suburban paper. My story was perfectly copy edited (I had just finished a major copy-editing internship, so I knew what I was doing), but the editors changed a couple of things, making my story grammatically incorrect. They were things like:

my version: "...he says he looks up to his cousin James..." (no comma after cousin, b/c James is not his only cousin). Their version: "he looks up to his cousin, James, .... (this means James is his only cousin...not true.) And there were similar changes throughout. It ticked me off, b/c I knew what I was doing.

Anyway, Maddie, I am sorry that happened to you and I am sorry you are changing your career plans. If it helps, people have been saying print journalism is dying for the past 15 years, and it's really not true. It is changing, though, and the Internet is going to be a big part of the industry in the future.

Maddie · Coach

Thanks, Halley. Don't mourn my career plans though, they are constantly evolving. Regarding journalism though I feel like recently I've heard nothing but how magaine subsriptions are down, newspapers even more so and both are laying people off right and left.

scarlett · Marc Jacobs

One thing to consider is writing for websites -- I think there's actually a steady increase in content, just not in the same venues (newspapers, magazines) as before.

Dizzy · Marc Jacobs

halleybird wrote:

They were things like:
my version: "...he says he looks up to his cousin James..." (no comma after cousin, b/c James is not his only cousin). Their version: "he looks up to his cousin, James, .... (this means James is his only cousin...not true.) And there were similar changes throughout. It ticked me off, b/c I knew what I was doing.

LOL! That is so familiar! They HAVE to change something, and if there's nothing wrong, you actually make it worse for yourself. I used to purposely leave in small things I knew they would want to change, just so I could say "Oh, thank you for catching that," and they would leave the rest alone...

atlgirl · Gucci

my version: "...he says he looks up to his cousin James..." (no comma after cousin, b/c James is not his only cousin). Their version: "he looks up to his cousin, James, .... (this means James is his only cousin...not true.)

???? Halleybird, I have never heard of this. And I'm a grammar police-type of girl. Please let me know where I can read more about this online or what book you use for reference (so I can grab one from B&N or somewhere). I'm not doubting you; I just hadn't heard of anything like this, and want to know more.

I always thought that commas were used when you used in that way as...crap, it's been too long since English classes...something with an "a". Appositive, maybe? That you put commas around the person's name...I'm probably not making much sense now - I'm off to look it up (if I can remember what that's called).

halleybird · Hermes

atlgirl wrote:

my version: "...he says he looks up to his cousin James..." (no comma after cousin, b/c James is not his only cousin). Their version: "he looks up to his cousin, James, .... (this means James is his only cousin...not true.)

???? Halleybird, I have never heard of this. And I'm a grammar police-type of girl. Please let me know where I can read more about this online or what book you use for reference (so I can grab one from B&N or somewhere). I'm not doubting you; I just hadn't heard of anything like this, and want to know more.

I always thought that commas were used when you used in that way as...crap, it's been too long since English classes...something with an "a". Appositive, maybe? That you put commas around the person's name...I'm probably not making much sense now - I'm off to look it up (if I can remember what that's called).

Hi atlgirl! I am popping in from work because I have all my grammar stuff here. I honestly didn't know what it's called either, but when I was a copy editor, it was basically beaten into my brain. Here's a site that sort of explains it. It's at the end of the section on commas, right above colons: http://www.englishchick.com/grammar/grpunc.htm .
It's called a "nonessential qualifier." Basically, if he has only one cousin, it is not necessary to qualify it. I.e., if he has only one cousin, and says "My cousin, James, has six toes," the word "James" becomes unnecessary, because he is the only cousin there is. But if he has more than one cousin, the commas are left out, because the name of the cousin becomes crucial to understanding which person the speaker is talking about. I hope that makes sense!

Dizzy -- in defense of copy editors, though, you wouldn't believe some of the stuff I saw. I worked at the night metro copy desk of a major newspaper, and these stories had seen 3-4 editors *minimum* before they got to me, and they were terrible! And being a copy editor is really a thankless job, b/c when you do it right, writers don't even notice (they think they had it that way from the beginning), and when you do it wrong, *everybody* knows about it. Even so, there's no excuse for a copy editor to be "edit happy," especially when they're wrong.

atlgirl · Gucci

Thanks halleybird, that site is very helpful! I had no idea about this.

halleybird · Hermes

atlgirl wrote:

Thanks halleybird, that site is very helpful! I had no idea about this.

no prob. I have a lot of mostly useless knowledge.