Monday, March 16, 2009

Editor's Job Opening: Reading Not Required

The story is about a couple who provides foster care for newborns and infants recently taking in their 100th child. The headline kicks it off: "100 and counting." Strangely, the copy desk editor couldn't be bothered to read deeply enough into the story (like the first sentence) to learn the couple is counting babies, not birthdays, before writing the fiction: "Foster parents hit century mark." No, they are 75 years young, as the expression goes. It's the Sun copy desker who has reached early senility.


Editors who read might help with faulty modifiers in the lede and elsewhere, as well. Instead, readers are giggling because instead of focusing on a child and his dirtbike, they encounter the all-seeing smile that ate the landscape:
While gazing across the five-acre track at Charlotte BMX Sunday, a smile spread across 11-year-old Ryan Nenno's face. Grammatically, it's the spreading smile that's gazing across the track.

2 comments:

  1. Pamela Staik seems to be a regular contributor for OWW's observations. I've met this reporter and she seems very sharp and bright. What a shame she's not getting the guidance that could help a talented young reporter become much, much more. Let's hope we don't watch a promising career stagnate as the "Sun" slips slowly away.

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  2. A new reporter in Englewood once commented that his work was not getting the attention it deserved from the editor there. It's a shame when you reach out for help but can't get it. Interns and new reporters do not get guidance or mentoring of any kind.

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