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It's all right to be right
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Copy editors must see
the big picture and speak up
without trepidation to safeguard their paper's credibility.
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| John McIntyre tries to drive home a point about the duty of copy editors to uphold
the integrity of their publications. |
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By Sue Blair
Knowledge
may be power, but unless copy editors can articulate what they know, the copy desk
may not fulfill its potential for clout in the newsroom. In ''Making the Copy Desk
a Force in the Newsroom,'' John McIntyre, assistant managing editor for the copy
desk at the Baltimore Sun and president of ACES, outlined several qualities that
distinguish an editor from a ''graf hooker'' (someone who merely processes copy,
taken from the L-shaped proofreader’s mark used to indicate a new paragraph).
McIntyre says an effective copy editor is:
-- An expert in the language. Not only must you be thoroughly grounded in
spelling, punctuation, grammar, usage and house style; you must also know what references
to turn to when you don't have the immediate solution to a problem. You need to know
and weigh the differences between the experts—Garner, Fowler and the like—and make
your own judgments.
| ''MAKING THE COPY DESK A FORCE IN THE NEWSROOM,'' presented by John McIntyre,
Baltimore Sun |
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A number of sentences in the session handout material
gave the audience a chance to spot usage problems that ranged from downright silly
to plain wrong: ''In no time flat, the ship turned 90 degrees, going from a horizontal
position between two piers into a vertical one ready to head into the berth…'' A
copy editor who understands ''perpendicular'' and ''parallel'' could quickly eliminate
the unfortunate image of the Titanic that the sentence brings to the reader's mind.
-- Able to see the big picture. A good editor looks analytically at the organization
and structure of a story and can articulate why changes need to be made. She can
spot where a story loses focus, or material that doesn’t contribute to the story's
effect or whose tone is inappropriate. She is very aware of the importance of headlines,
captions and other display type in drawing the reader into the story, and pays close
attention to those elements.
The copy editor should also understand how the desk fits into the newsroom and what
processes take place both upstream and downstream. And knowing that no reporter or
assigning editor thinks it’s going to be good news when a copy editor approaches,
it's up to the copy editor to establish professional relationships, and to make praise
(yes, praise!) as specific as criticism.
-- A skeptical reader. The copy editor is the last line of defense of his
publication's credibility. He asks the question that uncovers a name misspelled,
an incorrect date, a fabrication and ''any other hazard, big or little, that menaces
credibility.''
McIntyre drew knowing laughter from the audience when he told the story of a veteran
Sun copy editor who returned from a tussle with an assigning editor saying, ''They
have agreed to forgive me for being right.''
Copy editors have a variety of specialized skills that enable them to be right much
of the time. But if they are unable to make others in the newsroom recognize those
skills, neither the copy desk nor the publication itself will derive the full benefit
of their talent.
Sue Blair retired as copy chief of TIME magazine in 2001 and serves on the ACES
board. She is revising the TIME style manual and edits and publishes a family-association
newsletter.
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