For this week’s blog assignment, I decided to look at the lecture topic for this week and I read the websites assigned. I found the article from Poynter called “The Seven Deadly Copy Editing Sins” to be very interesting.
The website can be found: http://www.poynter.org/
One of the main reasons I thought this article to be so interesting is because I think that all seven are very true things that people can be found guilty of doing. However, making sure to avoid these really does make for a better copy editor.
The seven are: arrogance, assumptions, sloppiness, indifference, ignorance, laziness, and inflexibility.
First, there is arrogance. I think this one happens because people just want to do things their way and do not take a second look to see if it really makes sense to the reader. I think this one is easy to overcome by just thinking about layouts and how things look. The editor needs to think if it will be easy to understand and be able to follow if they are the reader of the newspaper.
Secondly, there are assumptions. I think this is an extremely easy mistake to make. This is because editors want to be able to trust their reporters and think that they got everything right in the story. However, the editor cannot assume this, they need to go back through the story and double check to make sure that everything checks out and is correct. Because if it is not correct, the newspaper ends up looking rather stupid. Therefore a copy editor can just take more time and double check the math the reporter has, make sure names are spelled right and that words are spelled consistently throughout a story.
Thirdly, there is sloppiness. I think this happens because people just do not take the time to do things correctly and make silly makes. To correct this sin, it is best to just make sure to everything correctly and give it your full attention.
The next sin is indifference. I think that this one is just not being creative and giving eat story and each event its own attention. Meaning that everything needs individualized attention to make sure it is placed and ran in the way it should be.
Next, there is ignorance. I think this one is all about not being informed and not really knowing what is going on. And since this is news, copy editors should know what is going on. Therefore, people need to stay informed and know what is happening when and where and know who is who and what position they may hold. Just being informed can help solve this problem.
The sixth since is laziness. I think this one is probably the most common. I think that because people are tired or just do not want to do what they have to do all the time. People need to take their job seriously and not slack off because if they do, it can have large repercussions. Therefore, to combat this deadly sin, people need to focus on work when they are not and not be lazy while doing it.
Finally, there is inflexibility. This is when people just do what they are comfortable with and when they do not want to try something new. Also they may not want to change something or do something differently because it might take longer or change a lot of things. To not do this people just need to be able to roll with the flow and do what they need to when they need to because it is the right thing to do.
I think that all of these are very true and almost everyone is guilty of committing them at one time or another. But I just think that people need to stay focused on work and do it to their best ability and their editing will be good.
I agree! All of these are definitely important things to take into consideration when editing. Although sometimes we engage in some of these "sins" unconsciously, there's really no excuse to lower your standards and produce a low-quality piece of work. These are all essentially common sense, and even though I know I am guilty of some of them, I think that keeping a good head on your shoulders and not making excuses will really help.
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