John E. McIntyre
I am honored that the Baltimore Sun’s John E. McIntyre, whose blog is a must-read for copy editors, has responded (at my invitation) to my advice for copy editors.
I encourage you to read the full post, A future for copy editors. But I’ll note some highlights here:
- John supports my call for efficiency in copy editing, telling “middle-initial fetishists” and AP-style cultists to “Stop wasting time on things that don’t matter much.” What does matter? John answers: “Let me remind you that it is possible for an article to be perfectly grammatical and conform to every last guideline in the AP Stylebook and still be dull, unclear, superficial, plagiarized, fabricated, or libelous.”
- John also agrees with me that copy editors overuse pun headlines that are lost on those humorless search engines: “On the printed page, you have elements, such as secondary headlines, photos, display quotes, and the like, to give a clever headline context.”
- John and I also agree on the importance of copy editors training themselves in new skills.
- I won’t quote from John’s private advice to copy editors (he asked the rest of us to step outside for a moment, but I listened through the transom), except to say it was right on the mark.
- On this, John and I fully agree: “if you are serious about the craft and about continuing to practice it, you will have to take more responsibility for your own career.”
That last point is good advice for every journalist. And it always was.
Great reading…lots of food for thought. Steve, thanks for all of the digital media info that you curate for all of us.
Nan
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[…] I started here. I encourage you to read the full post, A future for copy editors. I comment in a separate blog post, but mostly I summarize John. Read him unless you want to read […]
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I read Mr. McIntyre’s piece yesterday and am grateful, Steve, that you blogged about this. It’s an awful time for copy editors and I hope our skills will come back into demand. I also applaud McIntyre’s advice — it reminds me of a phrase I picked up from one of my mentors, who in turn picked it up from one of his, and I think it is elegantly concise: “Clarity is essential.”
Being technically perfect in terms of grammar, spelling and style can point to great skill on one hand, but it also can signal neglect of the other hallmarks of a great copy editor — such things as the completeness of the story, accuracy, fairness, proper attribution, avoiding legal pitfalls and plagiarism.
Kudos, Steve, for a great post. And thank you, Mr. McIntyre, for some great advice.
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