Editing is Fun

My favorite part about this week was the Power Point list of reasons that editing is fun. Not only was it fun to look back at everything we’ve learned this semester, there were also some good points made that I can apply. I really liked how it pointed out that editing is like solving a puzzle. I have applied this “game” to other classes before, especially math. But I never thought about making an editing assignment a puzzle to solve. Anytime I solve a puzzle, whether it is in a video game of a math assignment, I always feel good about myself knowing that I’ve accomplished something. The other reason that editing is fun is because your job changes constantly so you never have to be bored. I have had some very tedious and dull jobs in my lifetime. It makes you dread going to work every day because the minutes can seem to drag on like hours. I prefer a job that requires thinking and effort in order to do it well. Being an editor accomplishes both of these as well as allows you to find ways of being unique and creative in your work.

For this week’s editing mistake, I wanted to use my roommate’s choice of words. He said this new device he bought “kills all your dead skin.” If the skin is already dead, then how could you kill it? Everyday language is not edited though, so I will tell about the real mistake I found. This piece of work appeared in the Desert News:

He also wasn't a head a coach. Ever. Not at any point in his career. Krystkowiak, even if briefly, can say he was. Yes, it was for only two seasons and they happened five and six years ago, but that's still two more than Boylen brought to the table.

There isn’t really a way to make that first sentence work. These weekly editing mistakes have really been fun.

One Last Hurrah!

Well, folks. It is finally here. The end of the semester is just at the end of this blog posting. Over the last four months I have learned a lot. This class has not only helped me to become a better writer, but it has helped me be a better student of grammar. This past week on web pages has made me look at the website I view more in-depth. For the the web page assignment I chose to analyze ESPN.com. This website does an immaculate job at perfecting modular design and following layout formats as described in our readings. The stories on their pages, however, do not follow the best web designs. The titles do not touch the stories and the images are in weak places. I can't help but think that some news websites alter their story layouts so they do not look completely like news stories.Although I won't be designing web pages, I can still learn to appreciate the different layouts in the news I read.

Here is a funny grammar fail that I found. Hard to be scared of a guy who has this abomination for a tattoo.

Page Design

Being an English major, I haven't ever really taken any design classes. This was all new territory for me. But even so, I really enjoyed it, and found a lot of it very useful and interesting. Who knew there was so much to learn about putting a page together.
The most educational thing for me was learning about what designs just don't work. Before I just thought that as long as you had some pictures and some text, it was alright, but when I started reading about designs that really don't work, I realized that the look is almost more important than the information. I began to notice more why certain stories in the newspaper appealed more to me than others, and it wasn't just how interesting the story sounded, but how interesting it looked.If it was a story with no pictures, or a really long leg, it didn't look iteresting at all, but if it had a picture, especially a big picture, I was immediately drawn to it. The same goes for books or websites. We all know that we judge books by their covers, even if we shouldn't, and that visual element catches the reader way before the actual content does.
The editing mistake I found this week is one of my biggest pet peeves. I got a letter from one of my friends that said, "I'm doing good." Maybe it's just the English major in me, but is it really that hard to say I'm doing well?

Good Photos

I do broadcast news, and images and video are extremely important to worry about when doing a story. I liked reading about the good and bad photos because it reminded me of the things I look for when I'm filming a story. It's not exciting to have a bunch of people sitting or standing around in a photograph. It's better to have them participating in an activity. Instead of showing someone holding an award, you could show that person doing the activity that he or she got the award for.

Good photos also need to be cropped well. If a photo is cropped too tightly, you lose important aspects of the scene. If it's not cropped tight enough, the reader will be too distracted with the background. It's important to make sure a story has good photos to go with it because readers are attracted to the visual elements of the page. If a story doesn't have an attractive layout, the story may never get read.

Now to tell you about the last editing mistake for this semester. I was anchoring Weber State News, and a couple of the stories had horrible grammar. I have no idea who edited the stories, but they should have changed the wording. It was hard to read. If the editor of that show had read through the scripts, they would have realized words were missing from some of the sentences. Luckily, I was able to add in the words myself, but this shows editing is important in both print and broadcast settings.

Art Balance

This week I learned writing with a hangover is the worst feeling this side of breaking a leg. In terms of editing, however, I learned all about the intricacies of page design. The most important, in my opinion, aspect of page design is to scatter the art. Scattering graphics, art and photos around the page doesn't dull the reader into a mild coma, but allows for less confusion when reading. If an editor clumps all the art in one general area the reader gets confused. The reader, if the art is clustered, will constantly be distracted by the seemingly random graphics, and they rapidly lose interest. If the reader struggles to keep track of the story's progress, then you might as well have not written the article.
If an editor refuses art balance, the page will look lopsided as well as confusing. Lopsided papers, while not necessarily a major grievance, just look weird. I have a hard time reading visually strange pages because I can't get the odd look out of my head.
Balancing art anchors the page. With a good dominant picture and with proper placement, the page will lend itself to being read easily.
I found an editing mistake in a brochure proclaiming that chickens shouldn't live in coops, but nice hotels. Because, you know, chickens totally need to be pampered to make eggs. The brochure said, "Spare chickens by stopping a bus." I'm guessing it was supposed to be abuse, but maybe we should all stop buses. For the chickens.

A Great Typo Hunt

I re-learned that you can’t judge a book by its cover. “The Great Typo Hunt,” by Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson not only sounded dull but looked dull. The title seemed a bit presumptuous and subtitle, well: “Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time,” seriously? And the picture of a desert on the front cover left me feeling just as desolate. However…I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I must really be a “word nerd” after all. I found myself laughing at their ostentatious attitudes and contrived antics. And to have a love story woven through made it that much more palatable. And when I got to the picture of Canal City’s sign without the first “C,” I laughed really hard and then immediately wanted to send it to every student I know. At first I felt like America must be losing its general intelligence with all of the written mistakes we make. But then I realized we are just focusing our intelligence into other areas, which makes me want to work harder in my field to motivate others toward a stronger appreciation of their language. This book not only motivated me as I searched for typos around me every week, but I was excited, like it was Christmas morning every time. (Yes, I am a nerd.) In the end, these authors became less dull and more like my heroes.

Brought to you by Freelance Whales & Terrible Internet Connection

I've noticed with most news sites that the design mirrors print news, which is professional and doesn't offend me. I think Facebook's page design frustrates me the most because it's constantly changing; one day a feature will be in the right hand corner and the next day it doesn't exist. The design of a web site is going to be whatever the website's coordinator wants to be, and it may not please everyone, but there's ways to make the design pleasing to all involved.

What I'll take away from this class is a stronger admiration of grammar and vocabulary. I liked being able to relay what I've learned to friends who edit websites and articles. The vocabulary lists have also helped me to educate my brother so he can stop using words he learned from "Jersey Shore".