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#2 Y O U T E A C H P U N C T U AT I O N !

S E L F - E D I T I N G S T R AT E G I E S

I N - C L A S S T E S T

F U N W I T H I D I O M S

CLARIFICATIONS ON CP STYLE

1. The:

Don’t capitalize The when referring to newspapers

Do cap The in The Canadian Press, The Associated Press

Do capitalize The in names of books, magazines, movies, TV shows

2. Italics

CP Style leaves it up to individual publications to decide whether to italicize the titles of books, movies, plays, TV shows. We won’t use italics.

YOU TEACH PUNCTUATION• Groups of three• Each group is assigned a punctuation

mark to explain to class

• Review the rules in CP Style book• Write up a simple how-to, with each

person in the group contributing a sentence that shows the punctuation being used differently.

• Email the write-up to jessjane@gmail.com

TORONTO STAR TRACKS INCREASE IN MISTAKES “The Star published 415 corrections in 2012 for mistakes that made it into the newspaper and, for most, online too. As well, we made a further 280 corrections to web-only content.”

“The 415 print corrections are an increase of just over 10 per cent from the 366 corrections published in 2011. Of more concern to me is the continuing upward trend: Last year, we logged a similar 10 per cent hike from the 328 corrections published in 2010.”

Kathy English, public editor, Dec. 28, 2012

MEDIA AND MISTAKES

Traditional work flow:

• Reporter submits finished story

• Section editor reads it for major issues

• Copy editor reads it for major issues, structure, fact checking, grammatical issues, cuts story to fit space in paper

• Photographer submits related photo

• Different copy editor proofs laid-out story and photo cutline.

MEDIA AND MISTAKES

Current work flow:

• Partial story goes online when reporter has enough facts.

• The full story may be edited once.

• SEO and keywords are priority

• Reporter continues working on story throughout day.

• Tries to advance the story for next day’s paper.

• Editing online happens quickly, as story gets updated.

MEDIA AND MISTAKES

“Gone are the days when (copy editors) primarily detected errors and smoothed out prose for the next day’s paper. Now they must also operate in an online environment where search-engine optimization is a key goal. That requires new skills and time-consuming additional duties.”

- Andrew Alexander, Washington Post

SELF-EDITING STRATEGIES

Whenever possible, budget time to edit BEFORE deadline.

CP style editing guideline:

• “Read a story three times: Once for content, once to edit and once to clean up.”

• Put yourself in the reader’s shoes.

HOW WE READ

• We don’t read in a smooth progression; the eye darts around

HOW WE READ

• The eye processes text section by section

• We skip shorter words – often pronouns or determiners (a, the, that, this)

• We anticipate common phrasing

• We fixate on long, unusual words

STRATEGY 1: READ ALOUD

Hearing yourself say the words will help identify awkward phrasing:

“Let your ear be your editor.” – Joey Slinger

“Human Resources Minister Diane Finley announced Monday that after six months of study and $3 million in funding, the government has come up with new educational and job training guidelines that she predicts will make the Canadian labour force the most skilled in the world.”

STRATEGY 2: PRINT IT OUT

It’s easier to catch mistakes in printed text than on screen.

Research suggests:

• Proofreading on screen takes longer than on paper.

• Familiarity with an issue might negatively affect attention span.

• It’s easier to detect mistakes at the beginning of the story than at the end.

STRATEGY 3: READ BACKWARDS

Start reading the last sentence of a story and work toward the beginning.

David Shannon, director and CEO of the human rights commission, apologized that the process leading up to Thursday was long and frustrating for those who experienced racism.

There are roughly 30 black firefighters in the Halifax regional fire service, said Jermaine Mombourquette, president of the Halifax Association of Black Firefighters.

He said one member of the association voted against the restorative agreement.

STRATEGY 3: ENLARGE TEXT

Use the zoom function on your computer, or enlarge font size to see text more clearly.

The quick brown fox jumped over the the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumped over the the lazy dog.

STRATEGY 4: CHANGE TEXT FORMAT

Try changing document format so that the text configuration changes:

The quick brown fox jumped over the the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumped over the the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumped over the the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumped over the the lazy dog.

The quick brown fox jumped over the the lazy dog.

STRATEGY 4: KILL DISTRACTIONS

When proofreading on screen, close all other windows, turn off other updates. Don’t check email, answer phone, etc.

If possible, take printout to another room/environment and just read it.

Imagine you are reading someone else’s story in the newspaper.

STRATEGY 5: READ LINE BY LINE

Use a ruler and go methodically through each sentence, crossing out each one you’ve checked.

STRATEGY 6: USE A CHECKLIST

• Identify personal weaknesses in terms of spelling, grammar, word usage, etc. and keep a checklist handy for final edits.

• Highlight facts that should be double-checked: titles, people’s names, phone numbers, addresses, website URLs, etc.

PUNCTUATION AND SPELLING EXERCISES

• Edit the list of sentences, adding in apostrophes, colons, commas and hyphens where necessary.

• Spelling exercise

IDIOMS AND EXPRESSIONS

“Begging the question” or “raising the question”

“Reeking havoc” or “wreaking havoc”

“For all intensive purposes” or “for all intents and purposes”

“nerve-wracking” or “nerve-racking”

IDIOMS AND EXPRESSIONS

• “to rein in” or “to reign in”

• “Tow the line” or “toe the line”

• “Scapegoat” or “escape goat”

• “Wet your appetite” or “whet your appetite”

• “I couldn’t care less” or “I could care less”