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.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
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