Common Sense Journalism

Copy editors can take some pride in these students' stories

By Doug Fisher

During more than 30 years in journalism, I have always loved the reporting, editing and (from my broadcast days) shooting film and video. But now that I'm teaching, some moments beat even the best days in the field or the newsroom.

This month, I want to share two of them, small things that give me hope for journalism in general and specifically for copy editing.

Newsrooms are filled with angst as layoff and buyout notices keep coming, but it may be especially acute among copy editors. The consolidation of editing functions already under way and the threat of shipping some jobs overseas color many a conversation on the desk these days. It can be easy to despair that anyone will see the value of what copy editors do. Then along come notes like this posted on the class blog in my beginning copy-editing class. The writer is a public relations major not required to take the course, but who did so anyway:

"I work with a girl at the Governor's Mansion who is also a public relations major. Today we were discussing different classes we both have liked, and she told me she would be taking copy editing in the Fall, but was considering dropping it from her schedule. Of course, she went on to tell me how scared she is about taking this course. … I told her it would be the biggest mistake of her career not to take this class. I told her that of course, this class requires a lot of effort, patience and time, but that it would be worth it in the end. I think I convinced her.

"I'm not even two weeks into this class, yet I realize the value of what I'm learning. I think everyone in any journalism field should be required to take this class, especially public relations majors who must constantly be aware of how they communicate. I realized today, this class isn't just about editing newspaper articles and headlines … it's about perfecting the way we communicate in order for our audience to get the clearest message possible."

Some may see that more as blowing smoke and others may quibble with the suggestion that public relations is a "journalism field." But that misses the point, I think. These are students who "get it," as the digital mavens like to say. They have grown up in a multimedia world. They don't follow the rigid distinctions many of us do.

And they recognize the importance of editing – yes, copy editing – to communication. I take hope in that, as I take pride in this vignette from another student who has the determination to be a solid sports journalist, but who frankly says he spends most of his time online, and not at newspaper sites.

"My girlfriend and I were talking last night … about how my classes were going. We were talking about stressful jobs, and I was telling her about some of the duties of a copy editor. She made a statement like, 'I would rather work at McDonald's, or serve, or wait tables for the rest of my life than to have to be a copy editor.' I found this particularly amusing because she has just graduated with a nursing degree from USC and will begin work in the emergency room at Baptist Hospital next month. The emergency room! … She is going to be caring for sick, hurt, dead, and dying people all day long, and she thinks copy editing is worse than that! …

"That conversation, along with the 'Copy Editor's Lament' … kind of gave me a new opinion on copy editing. I think those two things kind of showed me that copy editing is looked at by other people as a very difficult and stressful job. As hard and overwhelming as this class seems to us already, it is important to keep in mind how difficult it really is, and that it is a job that not everyone can do. So I feel a lot better about my struggles."

Maybe, you should too. Copy editors are notorious for celebrating their studied anonymity. But when their story is told, people do understand how tough a job it is.

How are you going to tell the story, not only of the job and importance of the copy editor, but of the journalist in general? If you don't, no one else will.

And just think, emergency room nurses tremble at the thought. Sure, that and $3 will get you a cup of coffee these days, when yet another Newspaper Research Journal study has shown at least a third of copy editors are dissatisfied with their jobs. But isn't a little pride still worth something?

("The Copy Editor's Lament: George Martin's elegy for desk editors," as Tim Porter describes it, can be found at http://www.timporter.com/words/copyeditorlament.shtml.)

Doug Fisher, a former AP news editor, teaches journalism at the University of South Carolina and can be reached at dfisher@sc.edu or 803-777-3315.