The ( - ) Hyphen Strikes Back

Mr. Hyphen Face

Let's talk hyphens. You know, that little punctuation symbol of connectivity. We use

it often when connecting a collection of words to make one noun, such as sister-in-law. I wrote about hyphens here, where I talk about the evolution of some compound words.

It is most used in error when it is unknowingly left, and the rules are kind of squishy.

Here are some examples of where they are important:

1. Susan decided to resign her employment contract. (We'll miss you, Susan)
Susan decided to re-sign her employment contract. (It great to have you, Susan)

2. Jacob recovered the chair. (It was stolen and he got it back)
Jacob re-covered the chair. (Now it the chair looks nice)

3. I saw a man eating shark. (Yum! I love seafood)
I saw a man-eating shark. (Yikes! Get out of the water!)

4. The battalion was made up of six foot soldiers. (A half-dozen soldiers)
The battalion was made up of six-foot soldiers. (Tall guys)

5. We found ourselves in a dirty movie theater. (Popcorn was everywhere)
We found ourselves in a dirty-movie theater. (X-rated movie)

My thanks to the Society of Professional Journalist for bringing these little buggers to my attention in their news feed. You should follow SPJ on Facebook.

A co-worker once wanted me to correct and use "coworker," but I wouldn't budge because coworker looks funny, like you are saying "cow orker." It turned out my instincts were right, according to AP Style. However, I do disagree on a couple of AP Style rules, as you will find elsewhere in this blog.

You can reach Christopher at amosnews@yahoo.com

The wonder of blunders

Plans underway to get Americans sick with ebola

That was the online headline from the Associated Press August 1 which was quickly changed to “Plans underway to retrieve Americans sick with ebola.”

We find a lot of humor in goof headlines, be they by oversight, typo or not checking closely what your spell checker suggests.

Rather than sharing a bunch of headlines you can find simply online, I want to share with you my fantastic blunder.

But first, a grand blunder done in the text of a story by an under qualified chief editor I once had the misfortune to work under at a daily paper. The story was about public cleanup day, where residents are encouraged to get their junk out of their yards and garages and take it to the county facility for free disposal. The editor misspelled “Public” and instead wrote “Pubic,”  and to make matters more horrible he ended his story on Pubic Cleanup Day encouraging people to see if their elderly neighbors need help.

My big goof was in the cutline under a front page picture, which was a wonderful photo I took of scores of people releasing purple balloons into the air. The story was Children’s Advocacy Week, and supporters gathered at county courthouses across Texas to hear speeches and released balloons into the air. The cutline read:

“Supporters yesterday joined children advocacy groups around the state in releasing 10,000 baboons at courthouses across Texas”

 

Ahhhh! The baboons are attacking!

I hate auto spell check.

Are you brave enough to share YOUR blunder? Email it here.

Get over the "over" thing

I have both praised and thumbed my nose at the AP Stylebook in Ninja Journalist - here and here. Now I get to thumb my nose at the faithful followers that believe the book is infallible. I never thought the day would come, but AP Stylebook announced it is now acceptable to use “over” referring to a greater numerical value and some writers are throwing themselves on their swords over the move.

Many believe you can’t say or write “The tickets cost over $50” or “There were over 500 people at the festival.” They believe “The tickets cost more than….” and “There were more than 500 people….” is the only correct way. The funny thing is, I have not heard a sensible reason why it must be that way.

Comments on social media show how incredulous some are at learning that AP has given in to the over with distraught cries such as “I may never get over this,” “No, no, no, NO!” and “Boo! Wasn’t expecting AP to dumb down.”

The argument is that “over” is a physical location. I say yes, and it is a numerical value as well.

How silly it would be for us in journalism to claim to be experts in the language of numbers, like numerologist, mathematics professors, scientists and bankers. Those professionals often use “over” in reference to a higher numeral value and they are the experts in numbers, not us and not the Associated Press.

When a banker has too much money represented on the sheets at the end of the day, they don’t say “We have a more-than-age.” No, it is an overage. An OVERage.

Consider this: The word “out” is a physical location. However, just like our special word “over,” “out” is numerical as well, such as “You are out of money” - the number of dollars you have is zero. Out is also used as an adverb, adjective and preposition. Surprise!

I used/wrote “more” when I could get away with it and when I became an editor-reporter I gleefully did every chance I could.

There are over 40 negative comments on the Face Book conversation I saw and only three positive ones, counting my own. My favorite is from Gary Kircherr of the Erie Times-News, saying “This crotchety bellyaching over the removal of a silly style rule that should never have been there in the first place exemplifies perfectly why copy editors are always the first newsroom employees to be laid off. You whiners are giving the rest of us a bad name. Get over it already.”

Indeed, Gary. They need to get OVER it.

Share this post, comment below and follow Ninja Journalism by email with the window in the right column.

Old school journalism

Here are a few old school journalism things I hope our younger photojournalist find interesting or at least entertaining. There are printing processes, equipment and journalism terms that are no longer used while some are still among us but in different ways. I believe we need to know a little about where we came from in this unique profession.

Burn and Dodge

If you are a user of Adobe Photoshop you know about the “burn” and “dodge” tools. The burn tool, with an icon that looks like a hand giving the “A-OK,” darkens an area on a photo. The dodge tool, with an icon that looks like a lollypop, lightens an area. These are taken from dark room lab photo developing where light is shown through a negative onto photo-sensitive paper for a precise time to create the photo.

In days of yore, when a person in a photo lab wanted to lighten an area of a photo they held a little round piece of cardboard on a stick (the “lollypop”) and waved it over the developing paper, creating a momentary shadow and making that area lighter. If they wanted an area darker they would cup their hand leaving only a hole for a spot of light to get through (the “A-OK sign”) and the extra light would darken that particular area. It is cool that Adobe resurrected these terms when developing their famous photo manipulating software.

I never did dark room work and a predecessor of Photoshop was around when I got into journalism professionally, but printing was almost like Benjamin Franklin days when I was first learning journalism in high school.

Typesetting

My high school journalism by-line.

The term “typesetting” is used today when the appearance of a magazine, pamphlet, website page or newspaper is improved using various fonts, colors, type sizes, lines and photo placement. Typesetting, however, was a physical process of placing metal type by hand one line at a time. When I got into journalism in 1973 as a freshman in high school (Yes, Jennifer Retter, respected reporter and Ninja Journalism contributor, humans did walk the Earth back then), typesetting was already “modern” with a big machine called a Linotype. In journalism class, we typed our stories on a typewriter and made corrections and notations on the sheets of paper for the typesetter at the print shop. Such notations were to bold a word, enlarge headlines, make paragraph indentions and any corrections because there were no font selections and no spell checker on a typewriter.

The typesetter at the print shop re-typed the stories on the Linotype and metal letters and spaces fell from the type feeder snugly into a frame the size of the page. It was in this manner that a page was built and later “pressed” onto paper. Used type was melted down to be cast into new type. In another process, chemicals burned photo negatives onto metal and were placed in the frame to be part of the page. My journalism class took a field trip each year to the print shop to see this amazing machine and when I graduated my instructor gave me my “by-line” in metal type.

-15-

The term “15” and “30” are way old and few probably know about them. When typing a story to be sent to the print shop, every page had “-15-“ at the bottom if the story was continued on the following sheet and “-30-“ if it was the end. Even my old journalism teacher did not know how that came about as the way to signify to the typesetter when the story ended.

Feet Font

I can’t finish today without telling you why we use serif fonts. Serif means “feet” >and serif fonts looks like this< with slightly larger tips on the letters. This was used in those days of metal type and these tips on the letters insured the type would not wear down before the press was finished. We continue to use serif today as well as sans serif (“no feet”) because we are used to serif fonts like Times Roman and Century and find them easier to read in a body of text.

Here it is larger for you to see the little tips:

Serif Font, Sans Serif Font

You can watch a Linotype in action here.

I would love to read and share more journalism memories, old or new, from Ninja Journalism fans. Email me here.

AP Stylebook: More stupid rules

More stupid things from the AP Stylebook

Before I take more shots at the Associated Press book of style referenced by journalist around the world, you must first read my earlier post "AP Style" about how the book is an important tool here you have not already. I throw a few stones at the book then as well.

Go ahead. Read the earlier post and come back…

AP Stylebook wants you to add the word “diploma” after "GED." Such as, “She earned her GED diploma” and not simply "She earned her GED." Oh really? Since GED stands for General Equivalency Diploma, you would in fact be saying “She earned her General Equivalency Diploma diploma,” and that would be redundantly redundant.

In dates where A.D. or B.C. are needed, AP Stylebook wants you to put “A.D.” before the number but put “B.C.” after the number. So it would be "Carriages and coaches were first used around AD 750 but in 400 BC people just walked or rode the family yak." This rule must be based on the same logic we use our left hand to open doors on Tuesdays and Thursdays but our right hand Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The AP Stylebook wants you to capitalize the word "adrenaline" for no particular reason. The adrenaline produced in your body. No fooling.

AP Style book: Buy one, read it, use it, but don’t be a slave to it. If you alter from it, have a darned good reason for doing so, keep your alteration consistent and make the rest of the office do so as well so readers never see variations in your publication.

Its/It's, your/you're, there/their/they're

I have waited a long time to say this, but I can’t hold back any longer. I have a pet peeve about people who misuse words. Specifically, its and it’s, your and you’re, and there, their and they’re.

I don’t see these words used incorrectly in professional writing, but I see these words misused in casual writing, social media, advertising and even business correspondents.

A simple way to check yourself is to simply take a moment and think about the use of the word. Is it a contraction? Is it possessive? If it is a contraction you will be able to substitute, in your head, the two seperate words.

For instance, “your” is possessive. Your nose on your face belongs to you, therefore it is your nose. “You’re” is a contraction, the combining of “you” and “are.” I believe you’re cool because you read this blog.

I was chatting online with my younger brother on Facebook and I responded with a crazy, funny statement. My brother typed back, “Your nuts.” So I responded, “What about my nuts?” He didn’t get it.

I admit I am a poor speller and sometimes a careless writer and I have to proof the heck out of my stuff (see Editing and Proofing), but I always get its and it’s, your and you’re, and there, their and they’re correct. I even pronounce them correctly, and you didn’t know there was a difference, did you?

For a humorous look at 10 commonly misused words with visuals that may help you remember how to use them correctly, visit this post by The Oatmeal, a clever and funny artist.

AP Style

I have a like-hate relationship with the Associated Press Stylebook. I sure don’t love it, but I like it because one needs a standard to follow so your writing and style is consistent one story to the next, one week to the next, in sync with other writers of your office and with those of other magazine, web news, company newsletter or whatever publishing you do.  It looks sloppy to the reader if your terms, capitalization or punctuation is not consistent or is incorrect.

Buy one, brief yourself with it, keep it near your computer and refer to it often. A new addition comes out each year and in my opinion there are not enough changes to warrant a brand new one each year, but buy one three years old or less and toss the old one when it is over five years old. You can buy a slightly used one for about 10 bucks and a new one cost about $25. The book contains much more than technical word usage, like newsgathering conduct, privacy, media law and copyright infringement. Get one, read it and use it.

The book changes slightly each year because new words come into use, words magically combine into compound words, and trends change the terms we use. When I first studied journalism, the word fireman had just been done away with in favor of fire fighter, because more women were

entering that field. Then fire fighter became firefighter. Another example of term changes is the word Indian, which was put aside long ago and the term American Indian was used for many years. The current AP Style prefers Native American, which I disagree with because Hawaiians and Eskimos are also natives in America. I lost that argument to another editor proofing a story of mine, but I didn’t edit it and left it American Indian. Bad boy.

For the most part, the few things in the AP Stylebook I don’t agree with I still follow. However, I am still not sold on capitalizing the word internet, because nobody can explain to me how internet fits the definition of a proper noun. Even the title AP Stylebook is wrong. What right does the Associated Press have to create their own unique compound word? It should be "AP Style Book."

Hyphenated words are a pain to keep up with. "Cover up" can be "cover-up" depending if it is a noun or a verb. I hyphenate co-worker but some AP Stylebooks differ depending on the addition you have and my 2009 book leaves the word out. To me, coworker looks like it would read “cow orker” at a glance, so I hyphenate it. In the same way, compound words sometimes are used incorrectly.  Here is a link to a list of 190 common compound words. I like this list because cow orker is not on it.

And for gosh sakes, don't use this blog as a guideline to style!

#journalism #reporter

Editing and Proofing

Knowing that journalist and editors read this blog and knowing how some editors are – well, you know… pompous assholes – I want to point out you are reading a blog of my thoughts and ideas, so resist the urge to edit me for journalistic excellence.  However, if I do something stupid like type a vulgar word instead of the word “truck,” let me know so I can fix it.

That makes me think of a funny story!

Edit, edit and re-edit
The worse typo or bad edit that I ever did and was printed was one of those things where you hit the wrong suggestion during spell check. I misspelled the word “balloon” and instead….

It was an article and front cover photo about child advocacy week. In honor of child advocacy week politicians and supporters gathered at courthouses across Texas and “…released ten thousand baboons...”

However, I had an editor at a daily paper that made a worse mistake with something he wrote. It was public cleanup week for people to put all their junk by the curb that usually doesn’t get picked up. He called it “pubic cleanup week” and urged readers to check with their elderly neighbors to see if they needed help.

How I edit: Always have someone proof your stuff after you believe you are finished proofing it. I edit my writing (not this blog) several times on the computer, then print off a hard copy to proof. I find that reading it off a real page is different than reading it on a screen and I pick up things I might otherwise miss. I make notes on the paper and then I re-edit it on the computer, print another hard copy and hand that to a co-worker to proof. A second set of eyes is important and may catch a mistake you miss because you can just go brain numb proofing your work over and over,  plus another set of proofing eyes may find you are not clear in an area or you confuse the reader with the way the information is presented. After that I do a final edit on the computer using that co-worker's editing notes.

Don't just edit for spelling, punctuation, etc. Edit for flow and content. Make sure your delivery fits the story. Don't be cheesy if the story is serious and don't be too serious if the story is fun. 

Do the same when you are proofing other writer's work. If you proof another reporter's story and feel like you want to know more, tell the reporter. Help each other. "Maybe you can call one of the store owners on that road and get their feelings about the road expansion. That would give the story a little color and maybe a different perspective."

If you enjoy this blog, follow it and share it with others. Oh, and look out for baboons - there are a lot running around these days, especually at courthouses.