Wednesday, May 2, 2012
What happened to the Editor?!
The girls at work were oohing and aahing at the newspaper that gets delivered to work. (yes, it seems this itty bitty town DOES have a newspaper) They were reading the sports section, which surprised me. Somebody's ex was getting drafted onto a real football team and they were all excited for him since he came from this small town. Good reason to ooh and aah, yes. So, I decided to read the whole thing to find out how it all came about for this small town boy.
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I am reading along, having a nice trip, then my eyes hit a speed bump. Ugh, a miss use of the word 'to'. Okay, shake my head, deal and move on. My eyes hit another speed bump with the initials NfL. Yes, you saw it right. NfL. If you can't see anything wrong, we will just continue on. I find myself on the next paragraph, wondering when it will end...it runs on and on with no period....errrr. Another mistake, then another, and yet another. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a paid for newspaper, one where the writers are paid for their columns. This is a professional paper BUT even if it wasn't the thing is TYPED. What does that mean? If you are using the computer to put your paper together, and if you have ANY cheap, decent writing program, it IS going to tell you where the mistakes are for the most part. There should NOT be six mistakes in one short story. Even if the kid (I hope it's a young adult anyway) hurried and wrote this thing out on a type-writer, then his boss still has to read and approve. You don't run a newspaper without recognizing THIS many grammatical errors. (See that? I spelled 'grammatical' wrong and my computer told me to fix it! How can you honestly ignore that little red line!!!)~~~~~~~~~
No I am not a perfectionist, I make mistakes. I make them ALL OVER this blog. But when I proof read I find them. When I post them and read them again in different type, I find more. The point is that I FIND them and fix them. I was told I was nit picking by the ladies. It wasn't something they cared to listen to (and that may happen here too) but the only guy at work had a good view of the issue and a proposed solution. He suggested I highlight the mistakes and mail it back to them just so they know to be careful. But the ladies claimed he might have been having an 'off' day. So I compromised. I think I will watch for the paper and take a peek next time to see what they have to offer. It may just be this writer, and it may just be this article. So I will take my mothers advice. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"How long do you still have to live there Jen? Take my advice, don't rock the boat while you are still so far away from shore." Well said mother, well said. I don't want to get beat up by offended newspaper 'columnists' or angry editors. If there is an editor?
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From Shannyn Vancik on FB:
ReplyDeleteHaha... Love Mom's saying! And I agree, take a watch and see approach to this ... I always look at it like, will what I say or report be for the good, will the guy lose his job? If so, how many kids does he have, is his wife a stay at home Mom? If something I see is dangerous I would report it, but if it is causing no harm I ignore it. If a taxi cuts me off in traffic I think "I am going to call that guys boss!!"... but then I sit back and watch and he seems to be driving fine now, maybe he made one mistake like we all do. If I made that phone call would he have gotten in trouble, lost his job, where would that put him just because I am feeling mad at that moment.. I think of my husband as a courier and all the people that can call and say things about him if he made one little mistake or if they were having an off day and where it would place us if he lost his job. It makes me not call. I know it was off subject as a journalist, but makes you look at the full subject differently. He should have not only him and his spell check program checking but an editor too, I agree.. continue looking and then make your decision. Then maybe send it to HIM first, if he is not told he cannot try to make the change himself. Sometimes wouldn't you rather someone had come to you over a small thing instead of them going to your boss where your boss blows it out of proportion? I know there have been times where I wish someone had brought something to my attention so I could have made a quick fix rather than the supervisor making WHOLE department changes because of my one little mistake!