A proofreading reader

[Mark2010]

True story.....

Several years working at a small daily. One guy calls/writes about typos in the paper. Managing editor responds: "So, what are you doing in the evenings?" (Guy is a retired postal worker.) We hire him as a proofreader. Does a decent job, until....

One Saturday our regular paginator is out, I'm on news desk, doing like 13 pages live with an intern and our proofreader/new copy editor. Ugh!

 

[deskslave]

True story.....

Several years working at a small daily. One guy calls/writes about typos in the paper. Managing editor responds: "So, what are you doing in the evenings?" (Guy is a retired postal worker.) We hire him as a proofreader. Does a decent job, until....

One Saturday our regular paginator is out, I'm on news desk, doing like 13 pages live with an intern and our proofreader/new copy editor. Ugh!

I'm guessing he got an understanding of "how these ridiculous errors can slip by your idiot copy editors!!!!"

 

[Ace]

There's a big difference between a proofreader and a copy editor, as I am sure it was demonstrated to deskslave.

Of course, I don't know if a proofreaders exists in the newspaper industry any more.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

it's say her 'piece'

As long as we're getting into Mr. Language Person territory, there's actually some debate over that idiom. Some linguistics and etymology experts say a good case can be made for "peace," in that "speaking one's peace" (piping up) is the opposite of "holding one's peace" (staying quiet, as in "forever hold your peace").

Because "forever hold your piece" would have a vastly different connotation ...

 

[SF_Express]

Arriving late ...

Fossy: You were wrong. She was right. It doesn't matter what you found in the dictionary. On top of everything else, AP style is that when in doubt, use the shorter form of the word (this is more than that, but still). Let it go.

Rick: I actually understand what you're saying, and I've gotten a lot better at not focusing on tiny trees while the forest burns all around me. But I'm going to hold onto style consistency still being relatively important in our profession and not simply the hobgoblin of little minds.

 

[dixiehack]

The most interesting part of this thread was learning there are newspapers with enough budget room to offer desk jobs to schlubs off the street.

 

[RedCanuck]

We had a lady who did this for a while... it is absolutely maddening to get that paper back. In some cases, the person was dead on and I took the criticism in stride. When they make edits that are really nitpicky though or they make the snarky comments, then you wonder why they couldn't just get a life.

 

[SoCalDude]

Way back when, there were typists to input stories and our proofreaders were pathetic. They caught misspellings, but not wrong usage, such as their, there.
Our baseball writer wrote a story about a player who was upset about not getting any playing time. He wrote: Joe Blow was angry after spending most of the season sitting on the beach.
That got into print.