In appreciation of copy editors
My newspaper column
I was at the doctor's office last week, and we were talking about the newspaper.
He said he liked the newspaper, but -- almost everyone has a "but" when talking about the paper -- he had a suggestion: Do a better job with subject-verb agreement.
"None takes a singular verb," he said. "Too often I read: 'None are.'"
The hearts of retired English teachers everywhere soar. But this isn't a column about grammar. I am definitely the wrong person to write that one.
Instead, this is about a newspaper's last line of defense in the wars for accuracy and precision. Namely, the copy desk.
To be sure, copy editors untangle grammatical knots, but they are much more than proofreaders. They verify facts, root out possible libel, polish prose to greater clarity and ensure the writer writes exactly what he intended. Along the way, they write headlines and photo captions.
Copy editors try to think like you, the reader, and make sure any questions you might have are answered.
Copy editors get little credit when things go right because few people see their contributions.
But when things go wrong -- a mistake made -- boy, howdy.
Cathy Frail, who as news editor supervises our news copy desk, sent me this joke, which I have abbreviated for space.
A reporter dies and goes to heaven, where St. Peter issues him his wings.
"These seem kind of small," the reporter complains.
St. Peter explains that wing size is determined by the amount of abuse suffered in a person's earthly life. "See that guy with the butterfly-sized wings? He was a publisher. And the person with condor-sized wings? She was a night city editor."
Just then, a squadron of F-16s roars overhead, forcing the two to hit the dirt.
St. Peter stands up, dusts himself off and mutters, "Darn copy editors."
Yes, copy editors do get blamed.
But they help the paper save face many more times than they err. Some examples:
* Just last weekend, a reporter misspelled Hillary Clinton's first name, and two editors passed it through before it was fixed by a copy editor.
* Jay Reddick saved us from a twofer: misspelling the name of a guest conductor at the Eastern Music Festival and getting his title wrong.
* Christy Seals made sure a crucial letter "l" made it into a story about "public" officials.
* Another alert copy editor fixed a reference in which "deployable" troops were called "deplorable."
* One student in our annual Scholastic Achievement edition honoring the top scholars at area high schools included in his bio that he was Time’s Person of the Year in 2006. He was, too, as were you. That was the year Time honored "you" as person of the year. As Cathy said, "I loved his sense of humor, but there was no way we were going to include that."
Every good editor feels worse about errors in the paper than you can imagine. We know we don't catch everything, but we try.
Back to my doctor’s concern. He's right -- some of the time. Some grammar books may rule in his favor, but we use the Associated Press Stylebook. About "none" it says:
"It usually means no single one. When used in this sense, it always takes singular verbs and pronouns: 'None of the seats was in its right place.' Use a plural verb only if the sense is no two or no amount: 'None of the consultants agree on the same approach. None of the taxes have been paid.'"
Comments (1)
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Well-meaning but pedantic readers should also know that:
a) There's no "rule" against splitting infinitives; and
b) There's nothing "wrong" with starting a sentence with a conjunction like "and" or "but." In fact, they often make smooth transitive devices.
Those ones come up a lot at my paper.
Posted on September 14, 2008 9:21 PM