Web vs print fonts

http://www.unc.edu/~jkullama/inls181/final/webvsprint.html

Final exam resources and online AP Style test

Posting this to help you prepare for the final exam.

http://www.newsroom101.com/

Other resources:

http://www.edbond.com/editing/errors.html

http://www.edbond.com/editing/finalguide.html

These are the sources that you have that can help you review for the exam:

My online notes, the quizzes, the pretest, the practice for the midterm, the midterm, the notes/comments from the rotation assignment, your AP Stylebook and the "Working With Words" book. Any questions? Let me know.

Don't forget to use proper copy editing marks.

This link might also be a good refresher for some:

http://www.edbond.com/editing/otherrules.html

Final exam: 7:30 to 10 a.m., Thursday, May 13.

Bayside

http://www.edbond.com/Bayside%20Web%20Folder/Bayside%20Bulletin%20Web%20Final.html

Online polls

http://www.snappoll.com/


http://webpoll.sparklit.com/?ref=adwords_poll_3&refKey=c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b&subKey=6

Countdown clock widgets

http://www.widgetbox.com/home/

http://www.brighthub.com/internet/web-development/articles/27070.aspx

http://www.7is7.com/otto/countdclock.html

http://www.webgamedesign.com/countdown.php

http://www.ehow.com/how_5166682_create-countdown-timer.html

Scoring sheet for the final project

Your projects will be scored
according to these 10 criteria

Print nameplate

Basic design: modular design, dominant art, use of headlines

Include all necessary elements

Concept

Originality/Creativity

Execution

Web page design/organization

Web page elements (including video)

Web page execution

Connection with audience.

Notes on Dreamweaver

First: You need to create a site folder, where Dreamweaver can keep track of your html files and images.

Give it a file name WITHOUT SPACES. A space in a folder name will be replaced with 20%, throwing off any attempts to link to your website.

Inside the site folder, you should have an IMG or IMAGES folder. This is where you should keep your images, and they should exist within this folder before putting them onto the Web page.

IMPORTANT: The way that the site folder and IMG folder are organized must be maintained when these are uploaded onto fetch. If they are missing, the website will not look the way you planned.

Find: Document window, property inspector and how to insert elements.

CREATING THE DOCUMENT

Modify -- Page Properties
    Title: Name
    Background color
    Font color
    Link colors

Save the homepage as index.html.

Insert a table:

For the first table on the page, set a width of 800 pixels. All other tables will end up inside this one.

Study Web pages from other publications to understand how they organized cells and tables.

Cells and tables can be set to be a particular width, or set to be a percentage width of the page/table in which they reside.

Alignments can be set for text, for cells and for tables. How they interact can create an unintended appearance for your page. It can take some time to sort out the bet way to create the look you want to achieve.

Fonts, sizes and style choices about text are set through the CSS option. You are creating a style for different kinds of elements on the page. For instance, a style for headlines, a style for body text, a style for captions, etc. You may use these styles to maintain a consistent look for your document. Sometimes you will freelance a style for just an isolated use. Because you do not know which particular font will be available on the computer viewing your page, you don't choose a particular font, but a family of similar fonts that will be shown.

Links

You can create a link to another page within your site folder…  dogs.html

… or to another Web page not part of your site … http://www.edbond.com/dogs.html

… or an e-mail link with the prefix mail … mailto:ebond@ithaca.edu.

Consider how this one page will represent the entire website that you imagine. Include links, navigation bars, promos to inside stories, refers to print or related media.

Make sure to include a video element on the page.

AP Style will change Web site to website

Thanks to Nate March for catching this breaking news:

http://mashable.com/2010/04/16/ap-stylebook-website/

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=181664 

The Oregonian Editors

http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonianeditors/2010/04/ap_changes_its_style_on_websit.html

Story from Slate:

http://www.slate.com/id/2251324/

AP Stylebook

http://www.apstylebook.com/

Dreamweaver training

http://www.ithaca.edu/its/workshops/index.php?action=display&wid=187

Writing the caption/cutline

Write in present tense – unless you are giving additional facts not contained in the photo.

Don’t tell the obvious – Let the photo tell the story.

Don’t editorialize – you don’t know whether a person is happy, glum or troubled. Let the picture show the reader.

Omit references to the photo – “is pictured” or “is shown”

Use “from  left” not “left  to right”

Say when the photo was taken, and if it is not recent, give the date.

Don’t explain how the photo was taken – unless the photo is exceptional.

Check accuracy:

Check spellings of all names. For example, check against spellings in the news story.

Check the names against the people in the photo. For example, make sure you identify a male person with a male name.

Make sure the caption describes the object in the photo accurately. For example, if there’s a sign of a business, make sure the name of the business in the caption matches that on the sign.

The caption describes the event as shown in the picture, not the event itself. Don’t describe action the readers can’t see.

Give full information. For example, identify people with full names. Give ages if kids or if the ages are relevant.

Give credit to the photographer

Give location

Use cutheads or catchlines for standalone photos

Watch the mood for the photo

Where to get images

Of course, you need to list the in the attached sheet where you are getting your copy and your photos from. And of course, photos need to have cutlines and CREDIT lines for the sources.


But I want to discourage the habit of just ripping photos off a Web site, and then just telling me you got the image from "Google Images." Google Images is not a source of the photos, but a search engine that helps you find the image.

Images on the Web are protected by copyright law and cannot be used unless written permission is given by the owner of the copyright, or the image is in the public domain. While images on the Internet are protected by copyright law, there are many sites that make images available for your use. There are many stock photography sites that provide images for a fee. There are also certain sites that allow the use of their images for personal or educational use without a fee. Make sure to read the copyright restrictions on these sites carefully. United States government Web sites are a good place to look for images that are in the public domain and do not have copyright restriction against their use. 


If you find a site where you want to use an image and you are not sure whether you can use it, I'd recommend that you write an e-mail to the owner of the image to ask for permission. You should explain that you would be using this for a student project and this is not for commercial purposes.


Since your projects will be on the Web, we should be mindful of using images with permission.


You have a lot of images that you can use through the Ithaca College Library.


Follow this link: http://www.ithacalibrary.com/research/databases.php?type=images


You'll find there a database of Associated Press images and a host of other sources.


There are a lot of other public-use images out there. Anything from a government agency like NASA can be used.


Here is a Web page with a list of sources to "Public Domain, Copyright Free, Open Source, and Student Use Images and Media"

http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic98.htm

Here's a useful discussion on copyright:


http://www.templetons.com/brad/copyright.html


http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html


Bottom line: What this all means


I may want to publish examples of your work on my Web site. I also would like to post your Web pages on to my site: www.edbond.com.


However, to do so, you need to use images with permission or images that are OK within the principles of Fair Use and in the public domain.


Using the image as part of a parody -- making fun of the topic -- would be legal. So, some of your projects may be OK under that rule.


But if your work can't be considered a parody and uses images that are not in the public domain or don't have permission from the owner, then I won't be posting it online.

Final projects

For your final projects, I just wanted to start you off with some direction and some inspiration on page design.

Of course, you should be familiar with the broad outlines of the project assignment and the related links, here:

http://www.edbond.com/editing/finalproject/

But what I want you to remember is that your final project is meant to be something you will be proud of, something that you will be able to look back on for years and say, "Yes, I did that."

This is something you might want to show potential employers.

It's a lot of hard work, but but when you are pursuing a cool concept -- and there are some cool concepts I've been hearing about -- this can be exciting and fun.

This is meant to be more than just getting the stories and the elements of the page on paper. It's about jumping off the page with eye-popping designs. Just flipping through the later chapters (5-8) of the Harrower book will give you ideas. But Chapter 8 is especially useful for this project.

Some links:

http://www.ronreason.com/

Of course there are the video tutorials on Adobe:

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/

Check the Photoshop tutorial on using layers. It's useful stuff for final projects. I showed you some of that in class. The concepts there are good for combining images and in creating cutouts, where you can actually have the subject of the photo jump out into the text.

FOR INSPIRATION

As always, check out:

http://www.newsdesigner.com/blog/

And of course:

The Newseum

But you should also check out:

http://sportsdesigner.blogs.com/1/

There is a lot of dramatic stuff here, but you should remember that with Indesign, Photoshop and the right images to work with, you have all the tools to do what these professionals are doing.

This is a big... errr. ... deal

How the media handled Joe Biden's explective.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/waitwait/2010/03/how_to_say_the_f_word_without.html

Had it been on Battlestar Galactica or Caprica, it would have been easy:

"This is a big fracking deal."

Why you need a dirty mind to write headlines

It pays to see double meanings, so you don't write headlines like these.

Hyper Local News

http://businessjournalism.org/2010/03/21/hyperlocal-news-sites-main-street-connect-launch-march-22/

Technology goals

Most of the class has had plenty of practice time with Indesign. I'd like to lay out some goals for other programs we need to master this semester:

Dreamweaver

Everyone should practice using Dreamweaver. Your goals should be:

To create an HTML page (not a template.) The extension for the page would be .html.

Create that HTML page within a folder. (The folder name should not have spaces within it.)

Inside that folder, create a second folder called IMG.

The IMG folder should include JPEG images that can be imported into the HTML page. Bear in mind that a JPEG image of 800 pixels by 600 pixels will fill the entire screen of your Web page.

In addition to the images from the IMG folder, the HTML page should include:

A table that is 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels deep. This table can include subtables with a variety of cells, created with combinations of rows and columns.

Image and text links to a URL on the Internet, such as http://www.edbond.com/.

Image and text links to a second HTML page within your primary folder.

Dummy text that you can use to practice how to get text and images to interact and align with each other.

Embed a video on your page from YouTube.

Advanced goal: Create a navigation bar for your page.

Photoshop

Everyone should practice Photoshop with these goals:

Changing image size and rotating the canvass. Adjusting the brightness and contrast.

Combining images using the Layers function.

Adding colors using the Fill function

Adding Text

Cutting and manipulating images with marquee tools, lasso and polygonal lasso tools.

Manipulating images and text with the Transform tools.

Creating a unique look with the Filters.

Using the cloning stamp.

Saving an "unflattened" version of the document, meaning that the layers still exist separately.

Creating a "flattened" version of the document, where all layers have been merged into a single background layer. This is the version that can be exported/saved as a JPEG that can be used on a Web page or a print document.

Note: JPEGs can be used for Web or print, but EPS is the preferred format for print. A JPEG for Web should have a DPI of 72. For print, it should be no less than 150. FYI, the extension for a JPEG is .jpg.

Also, if you want to create a file with a transparent background, save it to a single layer and save it as a CompuServe Gif.

Journalism internships

I do freelance writing for a Washington DC area parenting magazine and we are looking for summer interns.  We'd like a few college journalism majors who are interested in publishing, writing for print/web and who live in the Northern Virginia area.  These internships are unpaid but the experience is hands-on (byline credit and direct access to editorial leadership).

Please have any interested parties send me email/resume to WriterCroll@gmail.com.

Chris

For next week

For next week, we will not have a quiz because there will be a midterm on Friday, March 12.

To get ready for the midterm, I will hand out a practice midterm on Monday that you can work on your own, and we will discuss as a class on Wednesday.

For the midterm, you have a lot of material to review to help you prepare. There is the pre-test, the quizzes, my notes online, the Associated Press Stylebook and the Working With Words.

Any kind of error may show up on the midterm, so be ready for it. As far as my online notes are concerned, you should read them up to and including the notes on the apostrophe. In particular, you need to review the entry titled, "Other rules."

The apostrophe was to be the quiz for next week, but I've decided to drop that. However, the issues with the apostrophe are really simple. The biggest issue is know when to use the apostrophe for its or it's. If you have trouble with it, check the punctuation entries for apostrophe in Working With Words and the AP Stylebook.

Other questions? Let me know Monday.

Anybody could have made this mistake ...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/waitwait/2010/03/caption_snafu.html

Rotation Teams Spring 2010

Group 1

Andrea Bichan
Kevin McCall
Danielle Paccione

Group 2

Raechel Keneally
Seth Schniebolk
Jackie Palachko

Group 3

Andrew Weisner
Emily Stoner
Jackie Simone

Group 4

Breanne Durning
Nate March
Archana Menon

Group 5

Kirsten Cornille
Mary Michalow
Sam Fanburg

Sample stories for headline practice

NEW YORK (AP) - Benny Andrews, a painter and teacher whose work drew on memories of his childhood in the segregated South, has died at age 75.
Andrews died Friday at his home in Brooklyn of cancer, his wife, Nene Humphrey, said Sunday.
Andrews painted socially conscious works that addressed issues including the civil rights movement, the Holocaust and the forced relocation of American Indians. Even in an era dominated by abstract art, he exhibited his work in galleries and won awards and prizes including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1974.
His work is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., among others.
Andrews was born in Plainview, Ga., in 1930 to a family of sharecroppers. He was one of 10 children who worked in the cotton fields. In 1948 he became the first member of his family to graduate from high school.



ELLENBURG, N.Y. (AP) - A man died Sunday after being attacked by a deer he was keeping in captivity, state police said.
Ronald Donah, 43, of Ellenburg, was attacked by the buck around 7:30 a.m., said state Trooper Joseph House. About a half dozen deer were found penned up on the property in Ellenburg, about 180 miles north of Albany in Clinton County.
Details of Donah's injuries and what may have prompted the attack were not available Sunday night.
Maureen Wren, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said Donah had a license for keeping the white tail deer on his property. She said incidents of deer attacking, at least in the wild, are extremely rare. She did not know why Donah was keeping the deer in captivity.



SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - Dominicans prayed and wept for relatives lost on American Airlines Flight 587, which was bound for Santo Domingo when it plummeted into a seaside New York neighborhood five years ago Sunday.
About 100 people attended a Roman Catholic Mass at Santo Domingo's Santa Maria la Menor Cathedral and watched a live broadcast from New York, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg dedicated a memorial to the 265 people killed in the second-deadliest aviation accident in U.S. history.
The sound of crying echoed through the vaulted cathedral at 10:16 a.m. Atlantic time, when firefighters in New York rang a bell to mark the moment the airliner plunged into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens, shortly after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport.



RICHFIELD, N.Y. (AP) - A large methamphetamine lab was uncovered at a home during a raid Saturday morning, state police said.
Five people were arrested at the home in Richfield, about 70 miles northwest of Albany. All were charged with second-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a felony punishable by life in prison. Additional charges, including unlawful possession of hazardous material, were pending.
Police said the lab was in the process of making methamphetamine when it was raided. State troopers seized over 20 liquid ounces of meth and several firearms. A surveillance system with a camera and monitors and a police scanner were also found.



NEW YORK (AP) - A man was shot to death during a fight over a parking space in Brooklyn, police said.
The fight, which broke out early Saturday, may have involved as many as a dozen people on Atlantic Avenue off Third Avenue in Boerum Hill.
After the attack, police said, the suspects piled into a couple of SUVs and raced from the scene, leaving Dallas Gilchrist, 34, of Queens, on the ground and clinging to life.
Gilchrist, shot five times with a .32-caliber handgun, died about an hour later at Brooklyn Hospital Center.



NEW YORK (AP) - The body of a 23-year-old man who was beaten, stabbed and strangled was found stuffed inside a black duffel bag in Brooklyn, authorities said.
Roberto Sesenton,'s body was found shortly before 7:30 p.m. Thursday between two parked vehicles in Brooklyn's Bath Beach neighborhood, authorities said.
Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the city medical examiner's office, said
Sesenton was beaten, stabbed and strangled. No arrests had been made in the case as of Sunday, police said. Sesenton, who was unemployed, lived with his sister and his nephew at an apartment in Bay Ridge about three miles from where his body was found.



NEW YORK (AP) - Manhattan resident seeks companion for ride to airport, maybe more.
In the latest novelty for a mobile city in a networked world, an online service that debuted this weekend offers to help New Yorkers hook up for cabs and any other connection that might blossom along the way.
Called Hitchsters.com, it's ride-sharing with a side of social networking, the digital trend that made MySpace a household word.
Hitchsters' pitch is largely economic in a city where a cab to the airport can run upwards of $50, but the service isn't shy about its social potential. Its Web site extols the possibility of meeting new people – and maybe getting a free ride if one of the travelers is on business. Users can even specify their fellow rider's gender, and whether they're more interested in safety or socializing.
"If people want to use it for the social networking aspect, we wanted to provide that," explained Hitchsters founder Terry Crawford. A mergers and acquisitions lawyer, he says the free service stems from his own travel frustrations. He ultimately hopes to expand it to other cities.


ATLANTA (AP) - A family riding in a mule-drawn carriage alongside a rural highway had pulled closer to the road to get around a stop sign when a tractor-trailer plowed into it, killing three and injuring three others, a relative of the victims said Sunday.
The truck driver apparently never saw the covered carriage before the collision Saturday on U.S. Hwy. 82 just outside of Alapaha, not far from the Florida state line, said Patricia Davis, the niece of 76-year-old John Joyce, who was killed.
Also killed was Joyce's son, Franklin Joyce, 45; and Franklin's great-nephew, Andrew Joyce, 5, authorities said. Abigail Joyce, 2, Andrew's sister, and their mother Kimberly Joyce, 24, were injured. The little girl was set to leave the hospital Sunday while Kimberly Joyce remained hospitalized, Davis said.



WALDENBURG, Ark. (AP) - Randy Wooten figured he'd get at least one vote in his bid for mayor of this town of 80 people - even if it was just his own.
He didn't. Now he has to decide whether to file a formal protest.
Wooten got the news from his wife, Roxanne, who went to City Hall on Wednesday to see the election results. "She saw my name with zero votes by it. She came home and asked me if I had voted for myself or not. I told her I did," said Wooten, owner of a local bar.
However, Poinsett County results reported Wednesday showed incumbent William H. Wood with 18 votes, challenger Ronnie Chatman with 18 votes and Wooten with zero.


SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Both major-party candidates for a congressional seat are decrying an ad sponsored by a national Republican committee that accuses the Democrat of billing taxpayers for a call to a phone-sex line. The ad, which began airing Friday, shows Michael Arcuri leering at the silhouette of a dancing woman who says, "Hi, sexy. You've reached the live, one-on-one fantasy line."
Arcuri's campaign said an associate mistakenly dialed an 800-number sex line two years ago from Arcuri's New York City hotel room, and released records supporting the claim. The number shares the same last seven digits with the number for the state Department of Criminal Justice Services, which was dialed the minute after the first call was made.
Arcuri, the district attorney in Oneida County, said the ad was "clearly libelous" and threatened to file a lawsuit. His GOP opponent, state Sen. Ray Meier, described it as "way over the line."
At least seven television stations in Syracuse, Utica and Binghamton refused to run the ad, Arcuri said. …





BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) - The driver of a tour bus that crashed into an Interstate 81 construction zone and killed three workers was found guilty Wednesday of having inadequate brakes, speeding in a construction zone and not keeping a current logbook.
The crash inspired new state laws that increased charges and fines for accidents in construction zones.
Robert E. Smith, 59, of Nixa, Mo., was driving a group from Central Bible College of Springfield, Mo., on May 20 when the bus swerved to avoid stopped traffic and struck a motorcycle, a cement curb, a tractor-trailer and a cement mixer. The bus and the mixer then traveled about 75 feet and struck another vehicle.
The victims were Jonathon Randall, 32, and Wayne Bonsell, 39, both of Binghamton, and Jason Pessoni, 30, of Cincinnatus. All worked for Economy Paving Co. in Cortland.
No sentencing date was set for Smith, who was seriously injured. He had earlier pleaded innocent.




LONG LAKE, N.Y. (AP) - Broad-shouldered Doug Conklin used the hand rims to propel his lightweight wheelchair through John Dillon Park, up the gravel path through pine forest. He was breathing hard by the time the trail from the boat dock branched off toward several new log lean-tos.
"I'll tell you what: Pushing up this thing, I won't have to go to the gym tonight," joked Conklin, visiting the central Adirondacks in September from suburban Kansas City, Mo.
The hard-packed gravel trail overlooked Grampus Lake in the 200-acre wilderness park, built entirely for people with disabilities and their companions. It opened in June about 100 miles north of Albany.
Conklin, 53, talked about returning next summer for a few nights. Firewood was neatly stacked by the lean-tos, the hearths showing little evidence of use, which annoyed him.
"People go the extra mile and do something good, and they don't use it," he said, noting a tendency of many disabled people to stay around the comfort zone of home. Paralyzed since a 1973 car crash, he drove alone to upstate New York to visit friends.
While federal laws have guaranteed handicapped access to the outdoors at federal, state and municipal land for almost two decades, advocates and officials say privately owned Dillon Park is exceptional.
Many public parks have wheelchair-accessible rest rooms, designated handicapped parking spots, a few campsites with an asphalt pad and at least one short paved trail. …



BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) - Authorities have accused a 41-year-old man of strangling his girlfriend with an apron and then reporting her death as a suicide.
Michael Fitzgerald, of Binghamton, was arrested Sunday and charged with second-degree murder in the Sept. 20 death of 32-year-old Joey Lansdowne, said Lt. William Yeager. Fitzgerald was being held without bail in the Broome County Jail.
Police learned of Lansdowne's death Sept. 20 when a man later identified as Fitzgerald called 911 and claimed Lansdowne had committed suicide, Yeager said.
Authorities pursued charges against Fitzgerald after sifting through what Yeager called "considerable medical evidence" following an autopsy. A Broome County grand jury handed up a sealed indictment Friday charging Fitzgerald with murder.
Yeager called the slaying a domestic dispute.




BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Four days after the record-setting snowstorm hit, nearly 200,000 homes and businesses remained without power, and a carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator was blamed for three deaths, officials said Monday.
At least three other people died earlier in the storm, which dumped up to two feet of heavy snow on Buffalo and surrounding areas Thursday and Friday.
Some community warming centers were filled to capacity Monday as about 95,000 remained in the dark, Mayor Byron Brown said. About 380,000 people originally lost power in the storm.
Most schools canceled classes Monday, and several large districts announced they would remain closed all week. In Buffalo, 21 school buildings were without electricity, while other districts worried buses would be unable to get down blocked streets.
National Grid spokesman Alberto Bianchetti said crews from 10 states and Canada were involved in the restoration effort, working in 12- to 16-hour shifts.
"This is certainly a storm and restoration effort that ranks among the most significant we've ever had," Bianchetti said. …




SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Honeywell Inc. will spend $451 million to help clean
up Onondaga Lake, once a sacred American Indian waterway turned into a toxic stew by a century of municipal and industrial pollution.
The agreement announced Thursday is one of the largest legal settlements against a polluter in state history, said Gov. George Pataki and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Honeywell will commit to a nine-year cleanup plan that calls for dredging 2.65 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment from the five-mile long lake on the city's northeastern limits, according
to a consent order filed in U.S. District Court in Syracuse.

Headline notes

Headlines

• Usually present tense
• No periods; Properly punctuated
• Use single, rather than double quote marks
• Most newspapers are ‘down style’
• OK to imply the verb ‘is’
• use a comma in place of ‘and’
• Should have verbs, unless it’s a special headline for a feature page
• Keep one idea per line
• Don’t split nouns and their modifiers, verb forms or prepositional phrases
• Don’t write question heads

Here is a link that shows you roughly how many characters you can have in a headline:

http://www.edbond.com/editing/headlinesamples.htm

Headlines

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/24/the-funniest-headline-fai_n_474212.html

http://www.oddee.com/item_96156.aspx 

http://www.bannedinhollywood.com/20-unintentionally-funny-news-headlines/ 


Ban on Soliciting Dead in Trotwood

British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands

Clinton Wins On Budget, More Lies Ahead

Cold Wave Linked To Temperatures

Deer Kills 17,000

Drunk Gets 9 Months In Violin Case

Enfield Couple Slain, Police Suspect Homicide

Eye Drops Off Counter

Hospitals Are Sued By 7 Foot Doctors

If Strike is Not Settled Quickly, It could Last Awhile

Include Your Kids when Baking Cookies

Taliban Head Seeks Arms

Juvenile Court To Try Shooting Defendant

Little Girls Make Delicious Snacks

Local H.S. Dropout Cut In Half

Man Stuck By Lightning Faces Battery Charge

Miners Refuse To Work After Death

Obesity Study Looks For Larger Test Group

New Vaccine May Contain H1N1

Hippo Mating Fails; Veternarian Takes Over

Cops Step Up Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers

Prositutes Appeal To Pope

Red Tape Holds Up Bridge

Kids To Be Belted On School Buses

Something Went Wrong In Jet Crash, Says Expert

Teachers Strike Idle Kids

Tornado Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

War Dims Hope For Peace

Next week's quiz: Commas

Make sure to read the entries on the comma under punctuation in the back of the AP Stylebook. Also read my notes here. And review Pages 172-177 in the latest edition of Working With Words. (Earlier versions have the same discussion.)

Fasten Your Seatbelt

Wednesday's quiz

For this week's quiz, we are dealing with numbers. You have my examples on my Web site at: http://www.edbond.com/editing/numbers.html. Of course, you should review the appendix in the back of Working With Words and find the relevant entries in the AP Stylebook. For this quiz, any kind of style issue we have covered so far can show up. So be prepared to deal with abbreviation and capitalization issues as well.

Smile – unedited (323 words)

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A little girl born with a perpetually grump look underwent surgery Friday that could literally bring a smile to her face.
“I’m fine, and excited,” 7-year-old Chelsey Thomas, clutching a favorite doll, said as she walked with her parents into Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Woodland Hills.
The corners of the blond, blue-eyed girl’s mouth began to sag because she was born without a key nerve in her face, a condition called Moebius Syndrome that afflicts up to 1,000 people nationwide. The nerve transmits commands to facial muscles that control smiling, frowning and pouting.
In an eight-hour operation that began at mid-morning, doctors planned to remove a muscle and nerve from Chelsey’s leg and transplant it to one side of her face. If the transplant succeeds – something that won’t be known for at least three months – the other side will be done in about six months.
“She’ll be able to smile for the first time, and that’s something every parent waits for. Usually it happens in the first few weeks of their life, but we’ve had to wait a little longer,” said Lori Thomas, her mother.
The $70,000 two-step operation is covered by the family’s health insurer, Kaiser Permanente, because it is not considered cosmetic.
“Just being unable to smile has numerous problems associated with it, social and psychological,” said Dr. Avron Daniller, one of Chelsey’s surgeon’s.
Her mother said: “It’s been hard for her because people think she’s unfriendly or ignoring them or bored. It’s been hard. Kids stare at her. Adults are pretty understanding, but she has a worse time with kids.”
Kaiser flew renowned Canadian surgeon Dr. Ronald Zuker, who pioneered the procedure, to Los Angeles to lead the surgery. Chelsey was expected to be hospitalized for five days.
Last month, Chelsey said she was eager to have the operation: “After the surgery, I’m going to smile at all my friends and have a party.”

Smile – edited (273 words)

REMEMBER THAT THE IMPORTANT CONCEPT IS THAT WHEN YOU CHANGE COPY, CHANGE AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. THE BEST EDITOR IS NOT THE ONE WHO MAKES THE MOST CHANGES, BUT THE BEST CHANGES.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A little girl born with a perpetually grumpy expression underwent surgery Friday that could bring a smile to her face.
“I’m fine and excited,” said 7-year-old Chelsey Thomas, as she walked with her parents into Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Woodland Hills.
The corners of Chelsey’s mouth sag because she was born without a key nerve in her face, a condition called Moebius Syndrome. This disease afflicts up to 1,000 people nationwide. The nerve commands facial muscles that control smiling, frowning and pouting.
In an eight-hour operation, doctors removed a muscle and nerve from Chelsey’s leg and transplanted it to one side of her face. If the transplant succeeds – which won’t be known for at least three months – doctors will do the other side in about six months.
“She’ll be able to smile for the first time, and that’s something every parent waits for,” said her mother, Lori Thomas. “Usually it happens in the first few weeks of their life, but we’ve had to wait a little longer.”
The $70,000 two-step operation is covered by the family’s health insurer, Kaiser Permanente, because it is not considered cosmetic.
Kaiser flew renowned Canadian surgeon Dr. Ronald Zuker, who pioneered the procedure, to Los Angeles to lead the surgery. Chelsey was expected to be hospitalized for five days.
Her mother said: “People think she’s unfriendly or ignoring them or bored. It’s been hard. Kids stare at her. Adults are pretty understanding, but she has a worse time with kids.”

Smile with tracked changes

New York Times Reader

Some notes on editing

What's wrong?

The bureaucrats in the school’s student aid department said alumni donations for scholarships are falling short this year.

The incumbent refuted his opponent’s accusation that he was in the pocket of special-interest groups.

She denied the fact that she killed her husband.

The City Council still hasn’t passed an anti-smoking proposal.

Opinion or fact?

The Republican Party believes in limited government, the Democratic Party in big spending.

The suspect is guilty.

I think the suspect is guilty.

He looks guilty.

The prosecuting attorney contended at trial that the suspect is guilty.

The candidate looked tired.

Tightening the language

Assessed a fine

Put emphasis on.

Has got to

Head up

Gather up

Is situated at

Makes her home

It is her intention

A great deal of

At this point in time

Despite the fact that

As a consequence of

For the reason that

Prior to

Blazing inferno

Consensus of opinion

Fatal killing

Freewill offering

General rule

Personal friend

12 noon

armed gunman

blue in color

self-confessed

completely destroyed

whether or not

contusion

effectuate

finalize

prioritize

residence

terminate

utilize

After setting a new record, she explained her future plans.

In order to get closer to to the audience, the speaker stepped off the stage.

The noon luncheon was postponed until later, the chairman said, because past experience told him the new construction would not be entirely completed.

The roof was partially destroyed, and the fire chief said a fire could recur again.

The professor plans to author his book during the summer months before the fall.

The accident occurred at 10 p.m. Wednesday night after the driver of the vehicle found his car completely surrounded by a thick fog, he told police after he hit the tree.

Next week's quiz: Capitalization

Some thoughts after marking the pre-test

First off, you should hang on to your pre-tests. Find out why you made each error and learn how to use the Stylebook and Working With Words as a resource on finding the answer to such issues. You'll be a better reporter and editor if you do this. If you still have trouble finding the answers, please ask me.

Secondly, it's a good idea to point out a fundamental difference between this class and other journalism classes. This is an editing class, not a writing class. The copy that you are working with has been created by someone else. So, my position is that if their is nothing wrong with the copy you should leave it alone. Don't make changes just to make changes. Just because you may write something in a different way doesn't mean you have to change it. Allow the reporter to retain his or her style and word choices. When you change a work, you should change as few words as possible.

Now, this leads to a problem I spotted, and it happens every semester. Beginning editing students will often change indirect quotes into direct quotes. That's just wrong.

You need to remember the basic premise here: A reporter has gone out and interviewed for and reported on a story. They write up the story and include quotes, and turn it in.

Now, if they wrote this:

The real problem is with the ineffective way the relief effort was handled, Joe Shlabotnick said.

That's an indirect quote. The reporter did not put quote marks on the sentence, so it is not a direct quote. The reporter is making no assertion, no promise that those are the words that came out of the source's mouth. However, the reporter is paraphrasing the overall content of what the person said.

If an editor were to put quotes on that, you've decided to override the reporter's work and make that sentence a direct quote. In effect, you are making the reporter promise that the quote came out of the source's mouth word-for-word. That could get the reporter into trouble with the source and with the reader.

This would be a lie:

"The real problem is with the ineffective way the relief effort was handled," Joe Shlabotnick said.

Could you imagine working for an editor who would screw up your copy like that? That'd be horrible, right?

OK, related issue. If the reporter does include a direct quote, it would also be wrong to change that quote without checking with the reporter. Sources can say all sorts of things that may look ungrammatical, but they actually said it. I consider it unethical for an editor to change the words within a quote.

The one possibility I see that it might be OK is if it seems impossible that the person quoted actually uttered the words. For example, if it seems a word had been dropped when the writer transcribed it or if it seems likely the reporter made some other kind of mistake, then it would be OK to change the quote, but only after talking to the reporter and asking them to double-check their notes.

But it is wrong to just change the words within a quote without checking.

Some other advice:

In general, students in this class need to review the AP Style entries on:

abbreviations

composition titles

titles and capitalization

numbers and numerals.

Next Wednesday's quiz will be on abbreviations. Review my notes, as well as the entries in the AP Stylebook and the appendix for Working With Words. We will base our discussion on Monday on your questions.

If you have no questions, I will presume that you have reviewed the material and have a solid understanding. Come in with good questions, and we'll have a good review. Come in with no questions, and we'll have no review.

For Friday

For Friday, everyone should read Harrower's introduction and first chapter. (Chapter 9, too, if you are interested.)

For next Monday, you need to review my notes on abbreviations, plus the entry on abbreviations in the wire service appendix at the back of Working With Words. Then you need to find the related entries in the AP Stylebook. Do that for Monday, so that I can address any questions or confusion you may have about this part of AP Style.

You should also read the introduction and first chapter of Working With Words for next week.

A note about my quizzes

There will be points available on each weekly quiz, and each week the number of points available will change. The points are totaled up at the midterm and at the end of the semester, and calculated into a percentage that is factored into your grade.

I may give you 10 sentences in a quiz, but that does not mean there are 10 errors. One sentence may have five errors while another may have none. I don't tell you how many errors each quiz has because you would not be able to do that in a professional environment. If a reporter turns in a story, you can't ask "Now, how many mistakes did you make here?" No, you need go through each sentence as if you were a soldier trying to clear a minefield. You have to be thorough and carefully assess whether the words in front of you are clear of danger before proceeding.

When I score the quizzes, it's very simple. If you missed the error or got something wrong that you should have known, I'll mark it with an X. That means you have lost a point. Sometimes I might write, "No." All I am saying then is that you probably strayed into an area that we had not covered yet and you got it wrong. In that case, I am not taking off points because there was understandable confusion.

This may happen time to time because the sentences I use for quizzes have been pulled from actual news stories.

But sometimes you may catch something that I didn't think of, hadn't covered or had missed somehow, and you correct it properly. In that case, I may mark the quiz with a +1 to give you a bonus point.

By the way, each quiz will include a bonus question at the end. The reason I include them is to challenge you to go further into your knowledge of AP Style, and also to challenge you with questions and facts that editors often have to look up and double-check in the course of editing copy. But to give you a tip: Often the answers to the bonus questions are in the AP Stylebook. (But not always.)

Anyway, there is a purpose behind my quizzes. Yes, you may have learned AP Style in previous classes, but it has been my experience that by the time students get to junior or senior year, they have forgotten much of it. News Editing is not just about giving you a reminder or a refresher on AP Style, but in training your brain to use your knowledge of style, grammar, spelling and punctuation effectively under pressure.

Let's say I was a track coach and you wanted to join my team. I might ask: "How often do you run?" If you said, "Well, I already learned how to run, and I did some running in high school," that's not going to help you get on the team.

If you had not run in a few years, your muscles have likely gotten soft and out of shape. The same thing happens to your brain. The quizzes and exercises for the class are meant to exercise and sharpen your brain to the point that you can work more effectively as a journalist.

Dinosaurs among us

A quick review of fonts

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See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.