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ACES EDUCATION FUND
Tax-deductible donations needed
for scholarships endowment
Posted 2-16-07
The ACES Education Fund
is more than halfway toward meeting its initial goal, the establishment
of an endowment sufficient to support the five scholarships it awards
each year to students who have demonstrated exceptional ability
and a commitment to copy editing.
“Thanks to grants from ACES and generous gifts from some board
members, the scholarship funds exceed $73,000,” said Neil Holdway
of the Daily Herald of suburban Chicago, who serves as treasurer
for both ACES and the Education Fund. “But we need at least $130,000
to assure that the awards will always be there for promising students.”
Those calculations are based on an assumption
that the fund will consistently earn at least 5 percent on its investments.
That return is not assured, of course, so the fund’s leaders hope
to exceed the initial goal, both to maintain the existing awards
and to add to their size and number.
“We need help,” said William G. Connolly, the fund’s president
and a retired senior editor of The New York Times. “In these perilous
times for journalism, copy editing has never been more important.
It’s essential that people who believe in our mission step up to
support it.
“If copy editing is to survive and thrive,” he said, “we must encourage
our successors, and the scholarship program is an ideal way to do
so. I hope every journalist will pitch in to help the cause.”
The largest scholarship granted thus far, for $2,500, is named
for Merv Aubespin, a Louisville Courier-Journal retiree, a former
president of the National Association of Black Journalists and,
as chairman of the Human Resources Committee of the American Society
of Newspaper Editors, the “godfather” of ACES. The other four scholarships
are for $1,000 each.
You can learn more about the scholarships and read about the 2006 winners.
The ACES Education Fund has applied for or is preparing applications
for several grants. For example, the New York Times Company Foundation
has been asked for a contribution that would be used to produce
and distribute material intended to spread awareness of the fund,
encourage individual and corporate contributions and increase the number of
scholarship applications. The Belo Foundation has been asked for a significant
gift for scholarships.
And a major fundraising campaign focused on ACES members and other
journalists is just getting under way. It will emphasize that gifts
to the Education Fund, unlike those to ACES, are tax-deductible
and will be used solely to help promising young people who have
demonstrated an interest in copy editing.
The fund has qualified for matching grants from the New York Times
Company Foundation, which means that every tax-deductible dollar
donated by a Times Company employee or retiree will bring a $1.50
contribution from the foundation. Future donors will be asked to
check with their employers to determine whether other matches are available
for the fund.
Information on how to make a tax-deductible gift is available here.
Since 1999, ACES has offered scholarships to promising students
who show an aptitude for and an interest in copy editing. The Education
Fund was established in 2004 as a 501(c)(3) corporation -- a tax-exempt
charity, in other words -- to administer the scholarship program
and develop other educational efforts.
The fund’s officers, in addition to Neil Holdway and Bill Connolly,
are Carrie Camillo of The Washington Post, vice president; and Kathy
Schenck of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, secretary.
The other members of the board are Merv Aubespin, George W. “Bill”
Cloud of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Alexander
B. Cruden of the Detroit Free Press, Leslie Guevarra of The San
Francisco Chronicle, Richard S. Holden of the Dow Jones Newspaper
Fund, Merrill Perlman of The New York Times and Pam Robinson of the Los Angeles
Times-Washington Post News Service.
HOLIDAY CHEER
'The 12 Deadlines
of Christmas'
Posted 12-18-06
By
David Sullivan
At the
first daily deadline,
the features desk sent me
Absolutely no copy.
At the second daily deadline,
the features desk sent me
Two advice columns
and one filler about TV.
At the third daily deadline,
the business desk sent me
Three graphics errors,
Two duplicate stories,
And a filler on the S&P.
On the fourth daily deadline,
the obit desk sent me
Four birth-year errors,
Three wrong survivors,
Two with no ages,
And a fix on yesterday's B3.
At the
fifth daily deadline,
the foreign desk sent me
Five analyses,
Four uncut briefs,
Three French brights,
Two Iraq ledes,
And Blair being bit by a bee.
At the sixth daily deadline,
the national desk sent me
Six Larry Sabato quotes,
Five analyses,
Four D.C. briefs,
Three GOP bashers,
Two wayward buses,
And Bush being bit by a bee.
At the seventh daily deadline,
the suburban desk sent me
Seven chicken dinners,
Six zoning hearings,
Five school board meetings,
Four outstanding students,
Three business openings,
Two business closings,
And a cop delivering a baby.
At the eighth daily deadline,
the city desk sent me
An eight-part mayoral preview,
Seven auto crashes,
Six armed robberies,
Five 30-inch stories,
Four pointless briefs,
Three uplifting heroes,
Two transit traumas,
And the tale of an abandoned baby.
At the ninth daily deadline,
the photo desk sent me
Nine uncaptioned photos,
Eight online slideshows,
Seven athlete mug shots,
Six "MUST RUN LARGE"s,
Five standalone packages,
Four shots of Putin,
Three French leaders,
Two traffic tieups,
And the sun setting behind a tree.
At the 10th daily deadline,
the design desk sent me
Ten too-tight orders,
Nine unneeded decks,
Eight mislabeled photos,
Seven mystery elements,
Six pages too late,
Five bad head ideas,
Four pages with no folios,
Three index errors,
Two skyline typos,
And a head ordered 1-72-3.
At the 11th daily deadline,
the sports desk sent me
Eleven college box scores,
Ten high school profiles,
Nine baseball trade briefs,
Eight NBA wraps,
Seven silly coach quotes,
Six NASCAR previews,
Five high school roundups,
Four 30-inch columns,
Three NFL trades,
Two hockey fights,
And a Terrell Owens quote from TV.
On the 12th day of Christmas,
the copy desk had caught:
Twelve misspelled names,
Eleven math mistakes,
Ten bad phone numbers,
Nine wrong day mentions,
Eight caption problems,
Seven coding miscues,
Six simple typos,
Five sports score errors,
Four libelous words,
Three errors in French,
Two graphics screwups,
And the wrong price-code UPC.
David Sullivan is AME
of copy desks at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He can be reached at
dsullivan@phillynews.com.
RETURN TO WWW.COPYDESK.ORG
EDITING
LESSONS
Learning new tricks and reviewing old
ones
Posted 12-10-06
By Gerri Berendzen
Preparing for the future without leaving behind the best of the
past -- it can be a delicate balance for copy editors working in
a changing industry.
Editors who gathered in Davenport, Iowa, Nov. 11 for the ACES Midwest
chapter workshop got a chance to learn new techniques while reviewing
basic skills in two sessions: "Capturing Passive, Uninterested Readers,"
a look at creating alternative story forms for any size paper, and
"Diagramming: Putting Sentences in Their Place."
Chris Courtney, design director of the Chicago Tribune's RedEye,
led the discussion about alternative story forms. He said that some
people in the industry think that introducing alternative story
forms into newspapers is a sign that words are dead -- but that
couldn't be further from the truth.
"Seventy-five percent of the stories in the today's newspapers
are told just fine in the inverted pyramid format," Courtney said.
"But 25 percent need to be told in an alternative form."
As advocates of the readers, copy editors need to realize this
-- and get involved early in the process, Courtney said.
Alternative story formats -- such as the "how to" form, charticals,
panels and roundtables, and chronologies -- take the effort of everyone
in the newsroom. Reporters, copy editors, photographers and designers
all need to work together to put together well-crafted content for
the readers, he said. Editing -- both for content and grammar and
style -- is as important for alternative story forms as for any piece of
copy that appears in the paper.
"It's content first, then
design," Courtney said.
Courtney said copy editors need to get involved when budgets come
out and look for topics that would be enhanced with things like
timelines, highlights and lists.
"Don't think you can do this great idea after the writing is done,"
Courtney said.
Today's readers are demanding that newspapers deliver content in
a variety of formats, Courtney said. The only way it will work is
if all departments in the newsroom work together. He added that
alternative story formats are not just for the big metros. Small
staffs sometimes have a better handle on the kind of cooperation that makes
alternative story forms work, he said. No copy editor should be
afraid to take a chance and suggest that stories be told in a different
manner.
But as Courtney said, words aren't dead. And developing basic editing
skills, especially skills involving grammar, remains one of the
ways that copy editors serve readers.
ACES president Chris Wienandt went back to the past to talk about
the lost art of diagramming sentences, and why editors ought to
give diagramming a second look.
Any editor of a certain age remembers the days in English class,
taking sentences and drawing lines to indicate parts of speech and
their importance to the sentence.
Why go back to diagramming? Because understanding diagramming means
you understand the parts of speech and where phrases should be placed
in a sentence. Being able to diagram a sentence can help you untangle
those problematic parts of a story, Wienandt said.
"It's not that you're going to be diagramming every sentence you
read, or taking the diagram of a bad sentence to the writer," Wienandt
said. But being able to dissect a sentence will help copy editors
fix muddled writing.
Some of the younger copy editors present were getting their first
look at the art of sentence diagramming, and the topic did elicit
at least one groan. Yet, beyond the idea of drawing lines and slashes,
the session involved a review of the eight parts of speech and some
of the basics of grammar -- and it's never a bad idea to review
the basics. Diagramming is one way to learn and understand grammar.
Wienandt suggested that anyone wanting more information on diagramming
should check out http://www.geocities.com/gene_moutoux/diagrams.htm.
Gerri Berendzen is
copy desk chief of the Quincy (Ill.) Herald-Whig. She can be reached
at gberendzen@whig.com.
RETURN TO WWW.COPYDESK.ORG
OMAHA REGIONAL WORKSHOP
First mini-conference a big success
for ACES
| Chrisann Nigrin, left, of
the Omaha World-Herald and Nancy Anderson of the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln shop for ACES merchandise at the regional workshop Oct.
28 at Creighton University in Omaha. |
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Posted 11-5-06
Copy-editing pros and
novices from six states traveled to Creighton University in Omaha,
Neb., to learn more about the craft at the first regional workshop
sponsored by the ACES Executive Committee.
The 67 registrants for the Oct. 28 event were from Nebraska, Kansas,
Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and Colorado. The group included students
and professors from four universities and even a few reporters.
Speakers and panelists
in the three general and three breakout sessions covered conflict
resolution, math for copy editors, design devices to aid scanners,
headline polishing, career planning for students and online editing.
Doug Ward of the University
of Kansas led a session on "People Editing." He offered advice with
an entertaining speaking style and PowerPoint presentation, then
handed out a few case studies that allowed the audience to discuss
how they would handle some common conflict-resolution scenarios.
Neil Holdway, of the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago and ACES
treasurer, brought the dreaded math lessons in an "ACES Math Sampler,"
hammering home lessons on figuring percentages and that ever-nagging
difference between percentage and percentage point, and reviewed
such things as accurately and ethically conveying election poll results
and crime rates.
Lisa McLendon showed how newspapers can quickly bring their readers
nuggets of information on their front pages aside from the headlines.
She showed how her Wichita Eagle in Kansas used fact boxes, bullet
headlines and other devices throughout centerpiece packages and
elsewhere on the page to serve the quick-scanning reader.
After these general sessions, everyone split into three breakouts.
ACES VP Deirdre Edgar of the Los Angeles Times led "Extreme Makeover:
Headline Edition," where the class looked at headlines that could
have been merely solid but instead were exceptional. Then the group
had the chance to write a few of their own.
Zoe Cabaniss Friloux of the Rocky Mountain News, also an ACES vice
president, discussed career planning and job skills with the college
students who attended the workshop.
And a panel with Alexandra Hayne of the Omaha World-Herald, Chris
Wienandt of the Dallas Morning News (and ACES President), and Holdway
led a small group in a discussion of how copy editors are working
on their newspapers' Web sites -- a process, everyone learned from
each other, that continues to evolve. When to post breaking news, how to
write Web-specific headlines, and uploading multiple media types such as
slide shows and video all were issues for the panelists and guests
alike.
Creighton University's high-tech meeting facilities served the
ACES guests well, and editors from the Omaha World-Herald were instrumental
in organizing this first regional workshop. The ACES Executive Committee
believes the Omaha experience will be a springboard for more regional
workshops to come at places nationwide that ACES is only beginning
to reach.
RETURN TO WWW.COPYDESK.ORG
HEALTH AND FITNESS
C'mon, copy editors, get healthy
Posted 10-17-06
By Emily Burch Harris
Getting into shape sounds simple
– eat less, move more – but in reality it’s one of the hardest things
for adults to do.
Maybe we have so many options that we reach information overload
(South- Atkins-Detox … what?) and fry our brains before we make
our grocery lists. Or maybe diets really don’t work. Or it’s genetics.
Or maybe it’s attitude. Hey, if you’re like me, you get sidelined
by the copy desk pumpkin (full of chocolaty goodness).
My goal is to tackle fitness and nutrition tips for deskers. Let’s
face it: We sit on our duffs for eight hours a day. If we’re lucky,
we take a dinner break. If we’re not, we grab a few slices of pizza
and shovel it in while editing the latest Foley story.
I taught aerobics through college. I work out five to six days
a week. And I watch what I eat. Think I’m buff? Think again. I’ve
been trying to shed the same 30 pounds for five years. So when I
say getting fit is tough, I know what I’m talking about.
So what works? Start with setting goals. Whether you want to lose
five pounds or 10 percent of your body weight, writing down your
goals will help you commit.
Plan your life. If you don’t have a plan, you won’t get anywhere.
Take some time and jot down menus, shopping lists and your planned
exercise for the week. Fifteen minutes of planning will save you
time later.
Schedule your exercise. Like most copy editors, I work nights.
I won’t be going to a 6 a.m. fitness class. But once a week I can
make it to the 9:45 class. The other days, I walk the dog, I lift
weights, and I do crunches. No time for the gym? Take your sneakers
to work and walk laps in the hall or around the block. If you like “seeing”
results, get a pedometer and aim for 10,000 steps a day.
If you are a gym member, talk to the fitness center staff. Ask
for an orientation session or set up one or two sessions with a
personal trainer. If you’re comfortable with weights, you may want
to ask the trainer to write a routine for you. Generally, the session
fee covers this and a run-through of the program. In Greensboro, N.C., that
would run me $30 every few months. The body gets used to your routine after
about three months, so you’ll have to mix it up to keep seeing results.
Sleep! The experts say you should have eight hours a day. I know
I can get by with six, but I do better with seven. Every body is
different. Figure out how much sleep you need and then be sure to
get it. If you can’t sleep, talk to your doctor. If you don’t want
sleeping pills, there are other options.
If you set yourself up to fail, you will. But if you make a plan
and follow through, you’ll be on your way to a fitter lifestyle.
Emily Burch Harris is a copy and slot editor in Greensboro,
N.C. Reach her at eburch@news-record.com
RETURN TO WWW.COPYDESK.ORG
NIEMAN
FELLOWSHIP
Washington Post copy editor chosen for
prestigious program
Posted 7-6-06
By Zoe Cabaniss Friloux
Gina Acosta never saw
her copy editing background as an obstacle to receiving a Nieman
Fellowship.
Acosta, 34, a copy editor in the editorial department at the Washington
Post, said that even as an undergraduate at Florida A&M University,
she was making plans to apply for the program.
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| Gina Acosta, a Washington
Post copy editor, will attend Harvard University as a Nieman
Fellow. |
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I always wanted to apply for the Nieman, Acosta
said. The program requires five years of professional experience,
but, she said, I wanted to wait a couple of extra years to make
my application more desirable.''
There have been few copy editors among Nieman Fellows, who spend
an academic year taking courses at Harvard University. But Acosta
had confidence in her ability to win acceptance for 2006-07.
It never occurred to me that as a copy editor that I d have less
of a shot at a Nieman than a foreign correspondent would, she said.
I see copy editors as just as much journalists as foreign correspondents
are.
All of that has paid off, and she will be heading to Massachusetts
in August for 10 months of coursework and other assignments. Acosta
s area of interest during her fellowship will be the fiscal consequences
of U.S. immigration policy and the participation of ethnic and religious
minorities in public life.
She said those whose advice
she sought encouraged her to choose a topic she is passionate about.
Immigration is a topic with which she is intimately familiar. Her
parents are Cuban immigrants, and she knew immigration would attract
more and more attention leading up to the 2008 presidential election.
Acosta expects to have plenty of
courses from which to choose, and she plans to take classes in science,
at the law school and at the Kennedy School of Government. But that
s just the beginning.
It s really just an intellectual feast that you re encouraged to
take part in. They want you to get there and go through the course
shopping period and be inspired.
I m really trying to keep myself as open as possible, she said.
Looking ahead, she plans to return to the editorial department
desk and copy editing editorials, letters to the editor and op-ed
pieces in summer 2007.
She d also like her fellowship to inspire more copy editors to
apply for such opportunities.
The fellowship is really about gaining more knowledge to make myself
a better journalist, which will make my newspaper better as well,
Acosta said.
She d also like other copy editors to take heart from her being
awarded a Nieman Fellowship and apply as well. It s never too early
to start planning.
''You definitely want to start thinking about it way ahead.
Visit http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/ for more information on that process.
Zoe Cabaniss Friloux
edits business stories at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. She
can be reached at zfriloux@copydesk.org.
RETURN TO WWW.COPYDESK.ORG
2006
ROBINSON PRIZE WINNER
USA Today copy editor a leader and an
educator in his newsroom
Posted 7-6-06
By Paula Devlin
When Paul Soucy was in
high school, he started writing for his high school newspaper. Thus
began a love affair with language that continues to this day.
That love led Soucy, now 36 and a copy editor for USA Today, to
a profession where he says he feels lucky because he is allowed
to work with and really care about language every day.
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| Paul Soucy of USA Today
is the winner of the inaugural Robinson Prize. He received
the award at the ACES conference banquet. You can hear his speech and learn more about the Robinson Prize. |
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Soucy has been recognized for his work by
his peers in the American Copy Editors Society by being chosen the
first recipient of the Robinson Prize, an award that focuses on
excellence over the entire range of skills and contributions in
editing.
What makes this award so special, Soucy says, is precisely because
it is an honor bestowed by his peers.
''As copy editors, we don't get a lot of recognition,'' he says.
''When we do, it's the 'headline of the month,' because that's what
managing editors think of what we do. Or after working on a tough
series, you get a note from the managing editor congratulating everyone,
'and the copy desk wrote sparkling headlines.' We're often not even recognized
by the guys in the glass offices because they don't know what we
do.''
But the $3,000 Robinson Prize, named for Pam Robinson, news editor
of the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service and co-founder
of ACES in 1997, is awarded by other copy editors, and that makes
all the difference, Soucy says.
"It comes from other people who eat lunch at their desks, who work
5 to 1 so they are coming in to work in the opposite direction from
everyone else who is going home, who haven't watched prime time
television in the last 15 or 20 years," he says.
Soucy and the other nominees were evaluated on several things,
including editing and design, mentoring and training, fostering
a sense of teamwork and pride among colleagues, as well as anything
else that furthers the role of the copy editing profession.
Furthering that role seems to come naturally to Soucy. His role
in the USA newsroom has expanded to include fashioning occasional
''style reminders'' that now go to the entire newsroom, not just
the copy desk. In each reminder, Soucy tackles a specific style
rule that seems to be tripping up editors and reporters alike, and he writes
and illustrates the reminders in a light-hearted manner. He says
he stresses points of copy editing and journalism, ''not to tell
anyone what to do, but to remind them of style points.'' He says
his fellow copy editors appreciate it, and his supervisors agree.
Soucy has taken this idea a bit further: He also does classes,
desk training, that he says revolve around ''copy desk bugaboos."
"The only reason I learned
any of these rules is because I broke them,'' he says with a sheepish
smile, ''and someone took the time to teach me.''
As for headline-writing, Soucy values ''clear'' over ''clever.''
But he says writing headlines is ''the least of the job. It's the
gravy, the creative expression. But what I love most is helping
a reporter express himself or herself the most clearly. At USA Today,
we can work directly with reporters. This gives the reporters the chance to
see, hear and know us as real people, instead of 'the desk.'''
Soucy has paid his dues as a reporter, and didn't like it. ''I
get enough rejection in my life,'' he laughs. ''I don't want to
talk to anyone who doesn't want to talk to me.'' He also has turned
down the chance to rise through the ranks in his newsroom. ''I like
to think one of my strengths is to recognize the Peter Principle in action,''
he says. ''I know what I'm good at. I know what I enjoy. I'm not
interested in managing other people; life is stressful enough!''
In the end, the Robinson Prize judges said their decision was an
easy one. ''Paul's entry stood out,'' said J.A. Montalbano of the
Albuquerque Tribune, chairman of the judging panel. ''It was well-rounded.
He's a leader in his newsroom. He writes smart headlines but doesn't
try too hard. And he's an educator, of young people and within his
newsroom.''
Soucy says he is flattered and humbled by the prize. ''The fact
that this organization is now recognizing the work of other copy
editors makes me so proud to be a member of this organization,''
he says.
Paula Devlin is copy
desk chief at The Times-Picayune. Contact her at pdevlin@timespicayune.com. This
story was reprinted from the May-June 2006 ACES newsletter.
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