Author: gberendzen

A checklist for copy editors

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Steve Buttry, the Lamar Family Visiting Scholar at Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communication, wrote a good article Feb. 2 for PBS MediaShift about “Why Journalism Professors Should Teach Accuracy Checklists.”

That led to a Twitter discussion about using checklists and the kinds that are out there. I noted this one from the Detroit Free Press that covers every area of the newsroom: DetFreePAccuracyChecklist (The list is focused on newspapers, but can be revamped for any type of publication.)

Following a checklist when copy editing is like using a recipe to bake. Everything might turn out just fine without the recipe, but it’s best to get the ingredients and proportions right.

I have a checklist of my own for copy editors. I admit that I co-opted parts of the above checklist and some others I’ve read in developing it. It’s broken down into the types of editing you might be doing on the copy desk.

Here it is (and re-edit it to fit your needs if you like it):

COPY EDITING CHECKLIST

Critical editing

  1. Does the story make sense?
  2. Are all of the major questions answered?
  3. Is the story fair? Who or what might be missing?
  4. Is the background complete enough that all readers will have a sense of relevance?
  5. Are there any sensitivity issues in either individual word usage or description?
  6. Do links go to something that is relevant to the story and that answers the questions raised? Are the links from a trusted source of information? Are there any bias issues with the links?

Accuracy checks

  1. Are the names correct? Are they spelled the same in every instance? (Check against headlines, cutlines, other display text.)
  2. Are the ages and dates correct?
  3. Are the titles correct — check for people, but also for businesses, institutions, books, works of art, etc.
  4. Are the locations, addresses correct?
  5. Did you check the phone numbers against directories or call the numbers?
  6. DID YOU DO THE MATH?
  7. Did you check website URLs to make sure they work?
  8. Did you check the links to make sure they work?

Grammar and spelling

  1. Did you do a spell check? (1A: Have you checked the spelling of any foreign words?)
  2. Did you check major grammar points: subject-verb agreement, pronoun use, antecedents, parallel construction?
  3. Did you check word usage?

Display type

  1. Is the headline accurate and balanced?
  2. Have you checked the headline, cutlines and display type against the story copy?

The value of slowing down

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I was recently explaining triage editing to my students, telling them that when there’s a rush to publish, you have to concentrate on the big things first and not get bogged down in the things of lesser consequence.

So my hierarchy of triage editing is accuracy and clarity first, headlines (plus labels, decks … whatever your system calls them) second, grammar and punctuation third (when grammar and punctuation don’t affect clarity) and style last. Whether you capitalize a title has the least lasting impact.

Of course, triage editing depends on taking a quick read to make an assessment and then doing what you can in the time you have.

But sometimes, for some stories, it’s a good idea to just say “STOP!  Slow down. This story can’t be handled quickly. It’s better to get it right than be first.”

Poynter.org reported Tuesday that because of two recent incidents, Boston.com would be putting more emphasis on vetting stories and reassigning some editorial staffers to work on copy editing.

I particularly found this quote by Corey Gottlieb, Boston.com’s general manager, interesting:

“We’ve made a pretty strong point about the fact that it’s OK to slow down. That we’d much rather not be first but get something right and be really thoughtful about it than rush to publish and bypass the discretion that should be required of any good content producer like ours.” — http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/314791/in-response-to-missteps-boston-com-tweaks-its-editing-approach/

In a perfect world, we’d have all the time we needed to edit every story, and plenty of people behind us to take a look at it as well. And, unfortunately, sometimes errors would still find their way into copy.

It’s even more unfortunate that the rush to publish these days means many stories are posted without any editing. Because no matter how conscientious writers are, they are apt not to see their own errors — and worse, their own biases and misunderstandings.

No matter how much you want to beat the competition, or how few people are manning your copy desk, it’s important sometimes to take your time. Two specific instances would be when, as a copy editor, you think a story needs a fact check and when you think it focuses on sensitive issues that need more discussion. (That’s one of the things we’ll be talking about during the ACES national conference, March 26-28 in Pittsburgh, which has the theme “Getting It Right.”)

As a copy editor, you need to develop your “slow down” radar and you need to speak up about the value of slowing down to the editors above you. Don’t be timid about telling the bosses that something needs more editing time and another look.

That’s a different side of a copy editor’s “do no harm” mantra.

Make sure your bosses know that many more people will remember who got it wrong than who got it first.

Fact checking is for all publications

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Developing and using fact checking skills is a good idea for copy editors of all sorts — not just copy editors working on hard news.

If accuracy and clarity are at the top of the editing triage list, then fact checking is a skill you need for treating the patient.

I recently did an interview with Howard Rauch of the American Society of Business Publication Editors about the importance of skeptical editing and fact checking training. The story, “Time for in-house fact-checking course definitely has arrived, says ACES’ Berendzen,” notes that in the digital age, the need for fact checking is heightened because information — and misinformation — spreads so much more quickly and it is difficult to get corrections to all of the far-reaching tentacles of that article.

The ASBPE serves the business, trade and specialty press, particularly B-2-B editors. The organization’s Ethics News Update newsletter for January 2015 is all about fact checking. One good article is an interview with Jane Elizabeth of the American Press Institute’s fact checking initiative about steps to set up a fact checking process.

In his column, Howard Rauch wrote: “The ‘elephant in the room’ is that little formal fact-checking is done any more beyond reporters going over their copy, and the editor doing a better job of questioning things that don’t make sense. Finances don’t allow ‘real’ fact-checking.”

That doesn’t have to be true. And it’s good to see organizations and publications beyond those that cover the presidential race put a priority on fact checking.

 

Getting at the source of things

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My American Copy Editors Society colleague Mark Allen offered everyone a New Year’s resolution Jan. 2 on the Copyediting.com blog: Don’t get fooled again.

Mark offers this advice to reporters: “If you don’t know the source, don’t run the story.”

I want to expand that advice for copy editors: If you can’t determine the source, then you need to exercise your editing skills. Get in touch with the reporter and explain why there’s a problem. Then either edit or cut the passage. Or do some fact checking and linking until what’s written is sourced and responsible.

As copy editors, you have a responsibility to make sure a hoax, rumor or humor masquerading as news doesn’t find its way into a story.

Educate yourself in finding the red flags in copy when it comes to sourcing. And learn how to track information down digitally to the source. And then insist that what clears your desk isn’t an offender.

I’ll end with a shameless plug. At the ACES national conference March 26-28 in Pittsburgh, we’re scheduling a track on fact checking. I’ll be doing a session on finding the red flags in copy. And if you can’t make it, I’ll be posting my slide show after the conference.

Word choice matters

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If 100 people gathered across the street from your workplace to express their opinion about something, would you call that a rally, protest or demonstration?

Here are a few definitions from the American Heritage dictionary:

Rally: n. A gathering, especially one intended to inspire enthusiasm for a cause: a political rally.

Protest: n. An individual or collective gesture or display of disapproval.

Demonstration: n. A public display of group opinion, as by a rally or march: peace demonstrations.

The three definitions are mostly the same, but there are slight differences. If the 100 people were mad because my employer had dumped toxic waste in a nearby stream, I’d be apt to call the event a protest. But if they wanted the leader of my company to run for governor, I’d probably use the word rally.

But beyond the dictionary definitions, we all know words have nuances to individuals. To me, a protest sounds a bit angrier than a demonstration. That may not be the case, but it’s a perception I have.

I grew up in a city along the Mississippi River. To me a river is big. Something about 3 feet wide is a creek or stream. Natives of the desert may see things a different way.

When you are editing, you need to look at word choice in the context of the type of editing you’re doing. In fiction editing, you may decide a word is too sterile and something that has more nuance is best. In news editing, you may decide a word is loaded — it evokes a certain opinion about the news event — and a more neutral word is better.

One of the jobs of the news copy editor is to make sure the word choice of the reporter doesn’t editorialize about the subject of the story.

Copy editors represent the reader. Remember, if you think a word is loaded, others will, too.

Taking the time to get it right

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How important is accuracy?

My grammar nerd friends may disown me, but I rate my tasks as a copy editor in this order: ensure accuracy, ensure clarity, fix the grammar and spelling.

So when someone told me today that doing fact checks wasn’t a role for copy editors anymore in the new media word, I cringed. The speaker was lamenting the fact that there was no time or resources anymore to check  facts. I argued that you need to take the time.

If I see a figure in a story I’m editing, how much time will it take me to find the source document and check that the figure is accurate? (There’s no one answer to the question, but when it comes to government documents, many are easily found on the Internet. And a call to the reporter can get you what you need as well.)

How much longer — and how much more damaging for my publication’s reputation — is it for me to skip the five-minute online accuracy check and just let it go, hoping the reporter meant $100 billion and not $10 billion or even $100 million?

That’s why I teach my students to raise red flags about certain things: figures, quotes taken from other sources, addresses and phone numbers, links in stories are among the red flags. These are all fairly easy to check and doing that check should be on the list of things a copy editor does when working on a story.

As copy editors, we should all make the time to be skeptical.

 

 

Playing catch up

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While I’m working on my first post here, I thought I’d point you to two things I’ve written for the American Copy Editors Society that offer useful information. The first is a related to a topic I’m working on, fact checking; the second is a project ACES has been working on for a couple of year, combating plagiarism and fabrication.

New handbook fills training gap in verifying user-generated content

Copy editors play key role in fighting plagiarism