New Blog -- News Editing!

So from here on out Lindsey's take will be about news editing and no longer issues in the news.

I really liked the Post's article "On Copy Editing." It reminded me of my summer internship at the Albany Times Union. I shared a desk with one of the copy editors because we worked opposite hours. On Mondays I was lucky enough to meet and talk with the copy editor that sat next to my desk when I stayed later. To be honest, before then I really didn't know what a copy editor did. But He would talk to me and point out things that he noticed in my writing. Like any "jargon" that he caught, as mentioned in the article, and explained how to stay away from that in my own writing. The ending made me smile because it reminded me of how he once described his job as a copy editor. He said, "Lindsey, you have to be a dark human being to do this job. We work at night and obsess over things that normal human beings never notice. And we never get credit but always get blamed." I think as a student journalist every intern should sit with the copy editors.
I had actually never heard of the term "slot man" and didn't realize that such a seating arrangement was used. It's a little confusing though, was the "slot man" the actual copy editor and sat in the middle so the "rim men" could hand him stories? I would assume so but still...
In "How Can I Become a Copy Editor" I thought the advice about pursuing other majors to have a leg up over other journalists without a specialty was good. I've been thinking about that more and more. I also completely agreed with what the author wrote about getting experience on a college paper and internship. I've learned more in those experiences than I have in any classroom.
In the last reading I noticed another point that was brought up earlier about how some copy editors write the headlines. At The Ithacan editors write headlines for their own section, but I noticed at my internship that the copy editors were doing the dirty, awful job of headline writing (how many hours can one stare at a screen willing that headline to just be one letter shorter to fit!) I also liked the explanation of what a proofreader does, we also have one at the school paper and once I made the mistake of assuming they did the same thing...not polite or professional!