Re: Editing issues

**"Dan Clost" d*@sympatico.ca**

Jeff, I am with you one hundred and ten per cent on this one. (It wonders me
how the math works, though.)  The stuff I write in this list is and never
will be polished prose. I view it as a conversation. I speak in fragments,
colloquialisms and downright bad English, sort of like when we're at the
coffeeshop munching on some doughnuts (Canadian influence, eh). I want to
share ideas and thoughts. As long as I'm reasonably coherent to youse
peoples I'm satisfied. I expect to be complimented or taken to task for bad
thoughts and ideas- not keying here. Most of all, I expect to learn.
I even floated a bad idea once just to see what would happen. Forthrightness
and blunt honesty are not your weak points, let me tell you! However, those
of you who really wanted to "get into it" did so off list. There's a certain
integrity in that.

I have had the good fortune of working with helpful newspaper editors- folks
who took the time to explain why they made changes. They are indeed
exceptional, Fran.

So Barb, here's one green-ink stained wretch who has had a fair bit of work
improved and has no qualms about saying so.

For Marge T., I feel the editor's first responsibility is to the employer
and their publication. That said, I dislike having anything I submit altered
at all and have been known to have little nit fits where editors and people
who sign the cheques can't see me. But that's the game, eh?  As for having
bits and pieces chopped, only once did a whole paragraph get taken away- I
ranted off a diatribe about Rash Limberger.

For Jeff and Duane, I agree with it being our job to write to length- that's
sort of one of the required skills for writing in a commercial publication
isn't it? (Commercial meaning magazines, newspapers, tracts,etc.)  I write a
weekly column for which I am allotted 650 words.  I think that's 15 column
inches, right? I view it as my obligation to turn in a piece that is at
least within 5 words of that limit. It is often more difficult to toss out
10 or 12 words than it is to write the first 500.
Features, which I view as a news story, get a similar treatment although not
as harsh. The stuff that I edit out gets worked up into sidebars which I
submit with the feature. Sometimes they're  printed, sometimes not. If the
topic works for my column, I'll take the unpublished sidebars and tweak
them- I hate not getting paid.

Thanks Miranda for an informative post- I learned a lot from that.
Here's a question to the editors amongst us: how prevalent is flat out bad
writing in "professional" pieces submitted for publication? How often do
you, as a group, return submissions with a note saying, "This is
unacceptable."?

Finally, many thanks to an apparently peeved Fran who started us off on this
fascinating little journey.

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