Testy Copy Editors

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Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 11 posts ] 
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 Post subject: I think I've found a new e-mail sig
PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 1:53 am 
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Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 887
Location: U.S.A.
What I really want to focus on is copy editing. I do not feel prepared for journalism.<p>--Aimi Gunderson<p>(Hey, could I make this up? Check it out yourself here.)


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 Post subject: Re: I think I've found a new e-mail sig
PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 4:10 am 
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Joined: Fri Jun 07, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 840
Location: Ashland, Ore.
I keep trying to get my hands on a copy of the AP style gide, but I can't seem to find it through any search. Thank god I have my stylebook to fall back on. (What good atheist would capitalize god, anyway?)


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 Post subject: Re: I think I've found a new e-mail sig
PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 12:38 pm 
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Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1399
Location: In the newsroom
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Gary Kirchherr:
What I really want to focus on is copy editing. I do not feel prepared for journalism.<p>--Aimi Gunderson<p>(Hey, could I make this up? Check it out yourself here.)<hr></blockquote><p>Yeeesh! Save us from help like that!


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 Post subject: Re: I think I've found a new e-mail sig
PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 3:18 pm 
If you scroll back a few posts in that link that Gary provided to us, you'll see that "Aimi" claims to hold a master's degree in English.


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 Post subject: Re: I think I've found a new e-mail sig
PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 5:48 pm 
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Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 12:01 am
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Location: In the newsroom
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Jim Thomsen:
If you scroll back a few posts in that link that Gary provided to us, you'll see that "Aimi" claims to hold a master's degree in English.<hr></blockquote>Proving, once again, that said degree is no guarantee of anything.


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 Post subject: Re: I think I've found a new e-mail sig
PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 6:42 pm 
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Joined: Fri Apr 26, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 316
Location: Albany, NY
Hey, easy on Aimi, now. I'd be delightfully
reassured, in fact, if a few dozen others
came forward and said they were't prepared
for journalism. Of course, they're all employed
as first-string reporters, and even editors.<p>[ January 30, 2003: Message edited by: jmcg ]</p>


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 Post subject: Re: I think I've found a new e-mail sig
PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 10:04 pm 
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Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1399
Location: In the newsroom
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by jmcg:
Hey, easy on Aimi, now. I'd be delightfully
reassured, in fact, if a few dozen others
came forward and said they were't prepared
for journalism. Of course, they're all employed
as first-string reporters, and even editors.<p>[ January 30, 2003: Message edited by: jmcg ]
<hr></blockquote>Hell, we'd all love to hear that from the folks we know who are woefully unprepared to be in their positions. That doesn't mean I want them on my desk! I have a problem with her implication that copyediting isn't journalism and is an appropriate starting place for someone with no relevant experience. And my definition of relevant experience is pretty broad, given my own background. A master's in English doesn't impress me, nor is it necessarily a promise of copyediting competence. IMHO.<p>[ January 30, 2003: Message edited by: SusanV ]</p>


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 Post subject: Re: I think I've found a new e-mail sig
PostPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2003 11:50 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1775
Location: Baltimore
some old-school copy editors don't consider their work journalism -- a term that's too high-falutin'.<p>some call it newspapering (if they like gerunds) or newspaper work. Or copy editing.
almost anything but journalism.<p>not that i know what the job-seeker was thinking.


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 Post subject: Re: I think I've found a new e-mail sig
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 12:53 am 
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Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 58
Location: Salt Lake City
You're missing the TRULY scary part:<p>aimigundersen wrote:
I have taught English for five years


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 Post subject: Re: I think I've found a new e-mail sig
PostPosted: Sun Feb 02, 2003 4:52 pm 
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Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1775
Location: Baltimore
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Kawtry:
You're missing the TRULY scary part:<p>aimigundersen wrote:
[b]I have taught English for five years
[/b]<hr></blockquote><p>All a matter of priorities.<p>I was forced out at a paper with a circulation of about 100,000 where I was a slot editor, wire editor, designer, and sometimes chief copy editor or night editor. My replacement: a woman whose job was being abolished in the personnel department, where she'd worked for decades. She had no newsroom experience.<p>Management's explanation: She had a degree in English.


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 Post subject: Re: I think I've found a new e-mail sig
PostPosted: Sun Feb 02, 2003 6:26 pm 
In my experience and observations, an English degree is impractical and largely useless as training for journalism. I was enrolled for a few years in an English degree program in college when I was more interested in becoming a different kind of writer, and my program was filled composition, theory and literature classes -- with very few core requisite classes in grammar, style, usage and the like. I spent a whole semester deconstructing "The Portrait Of A Lady" by Henry James, but when it cames to learning about gerunds, tenses, punctuation, clauses and the like, I had to get boot-camp-like instruction from my first city editor. Which is perhaps as it should be.


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