We strive for perfection, but fall short
One reader who wrote to comment on my most recent blog post pointed out a typographical error (now corrected.) Others regularly call the Reader Representative phone line at (409) 838-2846 to point out egregious errors in headlines, photo captions and stories.
We fix the mistakes we can, print corrections on most of those and continue to strive for perfection, recognizing that we will frequently fall short of our goal. I could start whining about deadlines and stress and the quantity of information we handle on a daily basis, but I would ultimately be wrong. We shouldn’t make mistakes, certainly not so many mistakes or such obvious ones.
The public is justifiably critical of our mistakes. We are, as they point out, professionals. Virtually every member of the news staff has at least an undergraduate degree, most of them in English or journalism. We all know the difference between there and their; between accept and except; even between affect and effect -- but we make mistakes.
The bottom line is that we all need editors. Even editors need editors, because our brains sometime read what we mean to say instead of what we actually write. I’ve found mistakes in items written by staff members higher on the organizational chain than I, and though I’ve been in newspaper management for more than 20 years, others have found mistakes in my work. It’s inherent.
Although composing at the keyboard is now standard practice for even elementary school students, the computer-age basic is a long-standing journalistic practice. Journalism students who felt the need to write their stories out longhand before putting a piece of paper in the typewriter disappeared from classrooms in the 1970s. I can’t imagine a journalism student today who would need such a crutch.
Sometimes our fingers work faster than our brains, so we make mistakes. We have spell check and grammar check at our fingertips, of course, but we all know they aren't infallible either.
When you see a mistake in The Beaumont Enterprise, call (409) 880-0748 or e-mail readerrep@beaumontenterprise.com and speak up. If something is confusing or inaccurate, we’ll correct it. If it's just stupid, we'll 'fess up and try to learn from it. Letting us know about errors rather than assuming we've seen them also helps get the on-line version corrected more quickly.
We take no pleasure in admitting our mistakes, but we don't try to hide them either. And we continue to work hard to keep errors out of the paper and off the Web site.
We fix the mistakes we can, print corrections on most of those and continue to strive for perfection, recognizing that we will frequently fall short of our goal. I could start whining about deadlines and stress and the quantity of information we handle on a daily basis, but I would ultimately be wrong. We shouldn’t make mistakes, certainly not so many mistakes or such obvious ones.
The public is justifiably critical of our mistakes. We are, as they point out, professionals. Virtually every member of the news staff has at least an undergraduate degree, most of them in English or journalism. We all know the difference between there and their; between accept and except; even between affect and effect -- but we make mistakes.
The bottom line is that we all need editors. Even editors need editors, because our brains sometime read what we mean to say instead of what we actually write. I’ve found mistakes in items written by staff members higher on the organizational chain than I, and though I’ve been in newspaper management for more than 20 years, others have found mistakes in my work. It’s inherent.
Although composing at the keyboard is now standard practice for even elementary school students, the computer-age basic is a long-standing journalistic practice. Journalism students who felt the need to write their stories out longhand before putting a piece of paper in the typewriter disappeared from classrooms in the 1970s. I can’t imagine a journalism student today who would need such a crutch.
Sometimes our fingers work faster than our brains, so we make mistakes. We have spell check and grammar check at our fingertips, of course, but we all know they aren't infallible either.
When you see a mistake in The Beaumont Enterprise, call (409) 880-0748 or e-mail readerrep@beaumontenterprise.com and speak up. If something is confusing or inaccurate, we’ll correct it. If it's just stupid, we'll 'fess up and try to learn from it. Letting us know about errors rather than assuming we've seen them also helps get the on-line version corrected more quickly.
We take no pleasure in admitting our mistakes, but we don't try to hide them either. And we continue to work hard to keep errors out of the paper and off the Web site.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 12:18 PM
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