Quote:
Originally Posted by pj67coll
Yeah. I've noticed that in the last few years. The abyssmal qualitiy of written (and spoken) English in the journalistic "profession". Incredible when you think that a command of the language should be pretty high up there in a journalists set of tools. I guess that's the result of forty years of liberal education.
- Peter.
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Much of that has to do with the fact that many newspapers have been decimated recently in terms of staff numbers. And those of us who remain are charged with doing twice the work we should be doing for two reasons: We must pick up the work of those who have been laid off, and we are expected to produce news simultaneously on the Internet and in our print edition. Many "Web updates" are posted by some guy who's trying, at the same time, to get everything out for print edition as deadline looms. It's easy to miss a typo when you're reading three things at once, no matter how refined your grammar and spelling are. I'm a very good copy editor, but I've made a lot of embarrassing and silly mistakes because I have to do two or three jobs at once. Of course, I usually go back and fix them, and many editors never make that effort.
Sorry to ramble off-topic, but it bothers me how so many people mock copy editors as uneducated or illiterate when we're really just grossly overworked (and some are illiterate, but still). In the past six months my workload has doubled, and I'm not exaggerating. Over the past two years that I've worked here, it seems every month or two, I get a new e-mail explaining an extra Web-related task I'm expected to take care of every night. And I've had to pick up the work of people who have been "let go" for budget reasons. At least I know one thing won't change: my salary.
Honestly, I think a lot of the best journalists are leaving the industry because it's become such a thankless wasteland. My worst fear was, at one point, that I would be the next one laid off. Now my worst fear is that I'll be the last one laid off.
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