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Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009

Tom Frazier: A story's last stop -- the copy desk

Exactly how does a story migrate from the reporters' keyboards to your driveway or desktop? It's quite a process.

A reporter has an idea, gleaned from myriad sources, and decides to write a story. Once written, the story goes to one or more editors. It may bounce back and forth between the reporter and the editor(s) -- for amplification, clarification or corrections.

After that, the story goes to its final stop -- the copy desk.

This group of folks has the last say -- but that's not all they do. They write and pick the size of headlines, check spelling, grammar and punctuation, verify facts, determine if there are libel concerns, lay out the pages, write photo captions, proofread and enforce writing styles suggested by the Associated Press.

That's a huge laundry list, and it's done in a time-compressed anxiety of an imminent deadline. Copy editors generally work well into the night.

They are not always on the reporters' favorite people list as they often call in the wee hours for more clarification.

They are not always on readers' favorite list either. Sometimes their choice of headlines irks readers. Sometimes they miss "obvious" errors and take the heat for proofreading -- even though reporters and the department editors also let the error slip through.

It takes a special breed.

The copy desk's final task -- enforce AP style -- is less obvious to us nonnewsies. But it's a big deal for a newspaper.

There's a book, "The Associated Press Stylebook," more than 400 pages long, that's the basis for almost all American news writing.

When I started writing the Sun Dog column, I didn't have a copy. But curiosity killed the cat, uh dog, as Executive Editor Mike Tharp would tell me he "applied AP style" to my column.

So I coughed up $10 to Amazon.

My guess is that this collection of "how to's" started over a beer summit of a few editors. Some "how to's" make perfect sense; others are mind-boggling.

Here are a few examples:

a) Today doesn't really mean "this day." Nor does tomorrow mean the day after. They are both more global. This is good style: "Today's children don't know how to use a rotary phone." Or, "The newspapers of tomorrow will be vastly different from today."

If you really mean today, you say Saturday.

b) It's not good style to say, "Merced has over 25 restaurants." Instead you must say, "Merced has more than 25 restaurants."

c) But if it were just 10 restaurants, or nine, you spell out the words rather than use numerals. Rule: Spell out numbers under 10.

d) Oh, unless the number is the first word of a sentence; then you always spell it out -- unless it's a year.

e) An attorney without a client is not an attorney -- he or she is a lawyer.

f) We say the United States Navy, but it's the British navy. (Notice the capitalization.)

g) Some state names are never abbreviated -- this one almost makes sense. If the state has five or fewer letters or if it's Alaska or Hawaii, you spell it out.

h) Never abbreviate days of the week.

i) Percent is always spelled out.

j) Odds are never 50/50; they are 50-50.

k) Here's one for the politically correct crowd: AP doesn't use "chairperson"; instead it uses "chairman" or "chairwoman."

l) While Northern California and Southern California are distinct regions, central California is not. (Notice the small "c" for central.)

"So what?" I hear you asking. But consider these are but a few examples in this bible of news writers.

Then, picture that it's 30 minutes from press time, and you work on the copy desk. Not only do you have to worry about spelling, verb and subject agreement, dangling participles, proper punctuation and potential libel suits, but now there's this quixotic style requirement, too.

I don't think I'm cut out to work at a copy desk.

(Executive editor's note: the Sun Dog made 14 errors, according to "The AP Stylebook," in his section about "The AP Stylebook." Even Homer nods.)

Tom Frazier writes Sun Dog and can be reached at sundog@promessage.com.