The Seven Deadly Sins of Copy Editing

Once again, we were not assigned a topic for this week's blog.  I really don't like that! Haha.  I find it hard to be creative about copy editing topics to blog about every week.  Ok enough venting.

One of the readings for lecture this week was an article on the ponyter Web site called, "The Seven Deadly Copy Editing Sins."  They are as follows:

1. Arrogance

2. Assumptions

3. Sloppiness

4. Indifference

5. Ignorance 

6. Laziness

7.  Inflexibility

At first, I thought arrogance was kind of a stretch.  But then I reread it and now it makes more sense and definitely deserves to be on this list.  The article compared this sin to selfishness.  The editor should ALWAYS have the interest of the reader in mind.  

Assumptions is another important one.  The saying "if your mother says she loves you, check it out" fits this category perfectly.  It is up to the editor to make sure things are spelled correctly, information is true, numbers makes sense, etc.  It is obviously the reporter's responsibility to get these things right also, but the editor is the final check to catch mistakes before the audience sees  the finished project.

Sloppiness is important, but I think it resembles laziness and assumptions quite a bit.  I think they all could possibly go in the same category.  Nevertheless, I think sloppiness is more about the little things than the "big picture."  It's not whether a source is made up or information is false, but rather that all page numbers are accounted for and the date on the paper is correct.  Things like this constitute sloppiness rather than another one of the deadly sins.

Indifference is important.  Editors should know what is a front page news story and what isn't.  It also means things should be more creative instead of bland.  Readers want things to be creative and new instead of the same old thing they are used to.

I do not think that ignorance needs to be its own sin, but poynter made it one.  It is important to make sure that names are correct and match photos, etc. but I think that if one is ignorant it could also mean they are lazy.  I do not see much of a difference between those two words.

I think laziness is by far the deadliest sin.  An editor's job is specifically to NOT be lazy and fix the mistakes others have made.  If he or she is going to be lazy, they are failing at their job..BIG TIME.  It takes a patient and precise person to be an editor.  It also takes a person who is committed to finding errors and is not going to be lazy and let them slide.  This cold result in the respect of the publication decreasing.

The last sin is inflexibility.  Editors need to have knowledge in a wide variety  of areas.  They need to know guidelines for sports and regular writing.  They need to be willing to work late hours in order for a publication to be produced  on time with all accurate information.  They need to be willing to ask for help if need be and make sacrifices, such as staying later.

All of these sins could be incredibly deadly to an editor's job, reputation and respect from co-workers.  Until next week,

-sar