I spent some time Tuesday following the Twitter stream from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s convention in Boston. (#AEJMC)
Thanks to the work of convention attendees, especially @ljthornton (the non-Twitterati know her as Leslie-Jean Thornton of the Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication at Arizona State University), I picked up some interesting information from “The Future of Editing” session on what’s happening with copy editing in the classroom and where the academic world sees the craft moving.
It was an afternoon of new media, for sure. Real time. From my desk in Illinois.
However, let’s face it, essentially I was reading all afternoon.
This tweet from @stevejfox (Stephen J. Fox of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst) made me stop and think for a minute: “1 prof on future of editing: ‘copy editors just work w words’ Sorry, those days are gone. Cross training of students is way to go.”
My first thought: I’ve always worked with more than words, going way back to when I started getting paid to be a copy editor 27 years ago. I definitely remember using a proportion wheel. (I embraced moving beyond it!)
I understand the underlying message. To be a practicing copy editor in this new media world, copy editors — not of the future, but those sitting in newsrooms even as you read this — need to look well beyond the AP Stylebook and the printed page.
But before you consign those pesky words to the trash heap, ponder this — the Internet, texting, tweets are all filled with them. Writing tight, as Strunk and White might say, is more important than ever. And those word skills are still vital.
You said it, Gerry. And I loved your headline, since it’s a phrase I’ve been blogging under for more than six years.