Barbara Ellis - The Copy Editing And Headline Handbook

This book is dedicated to all the thousands of copy editors who have toiled quietly through the nearly three hundred years of American journalism. They are the unsung brain trusts, the mainstays behind any newspapers success. Their encyclopedic and eclectic minds, their sharp eyes, and their quick hands process the daily events of human life from the historic and the humdrum to the humorous and the horrible. And all with careful attention to accuracy, style, organization, libel, grammar, mechanics, spelling, countand on deadline.

From quill pens to computers, the women and men of the desk have caught millions of errors ranging from the monumental to the minuscule. Never expecting (or getting) public plaudits or private appreciation from either cubs or newsroom stars, they nevertheless have stood behind Pulitzer Prize winners as well as ordinary reporters. Their headlinesword magic in 12-point or 144have netted publishers billions in profits over the decades because heads are the principal selling tool at newsstands and on subscriber doorsteps.

The book is also dedicated to the slots who provided my education on a half-dozen copydesks around the nation: Ellis Lucia, Hans Knight, Saul Frelich, Jim Wood, Al Ryan, Seth Wilson, Barbara Taylor, and Frank Murray. Grateful tribute also goes to the rigorous training that I received at Time, Inc., when I was a LIFE magazine reporterand from its exacting staffers like Marian MacPhail, Muriel Hall, Joe Kastner, Grayce Horan, and the terrifying and punctilious Copy Editing and Letters Departments, who always kept us on our mark.

Special thanks also go to the two longtime copy editors who were the consultants for this book and provided immense assistance:

Trudi Hahn of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Ed Alderman, formerly of the Lake Charles (La.) American Press, who is now production editor at Mosby, Inc., St. Louis, Mo.

Tribute also goes to my copy-editing students at McNeese State University, who were the first to use the material in this book and who provided suggestions on its presentation and emphasis.

Above all, I dedicate this book to Dr. Robert Smith, Bill Wilson, and April Wasson.

Dr. Barbara G. Ellis
McNeese State University
Lake Charles, LA

Headlines not only sell newspapersand move readers straight through the contents and advertisingbut also may subliminally convince thousands of headline readers. Headlines rivet our attention, especially the ones above the fold on the newsstands, because street sales still play a large role in a newspapers survival. When critics cry that publishers are just out to sell papers, theyre absolutely correct. This has been the reality of the business since the first gazette, Acta Diurna, was hawked around the Roman Empire from 59 B.C. to A.D. 222. Who is not riveted by the Page-1 banner head that screams:

272 die in plane crash

Or enraged when the sports page ridicules the home teams valiant, but vain, efforts:

Wildcats defanged 483

Many perceive that head writing must be fun when they see this famous winner crafted by a master for an otherwise ho-hum story about two New York detectives named Jack who raided what then was called a sporting palace:

Pair of Jacks take full house

Or some may appreciate the whimsical spin over a hard-news item about disgruntled homeowners winning an injunction against an architect building a cubist-type house in their Georgian-styled neighborhood:

Squares win angle on cube

Admittedly, copy editors take an elitists pride in the ancient craft of fixing and polishing writing, in being the guardians of language and facts. They are the descendants of the medieval worlds powerful scribes and Renaissance-world types. These men and women usually constitute the brightest, wisest, wittiest watchdogs in a newsroom. Those who are called tend to be the older members of a staff because all the knowledge that is packed into their heads trivia to major eventstakes years to amass. The resulting headlines empty out newsstands and keep circulation clerks busy enrolling subscribers, which, in turn, attracts advertisers. In other words, headline writers have played a major role in keeping other newspaper employees out of the breadlines for nearly 200 years.

You are about to learn the basics of a copy editors skills. If you like this side of newspaper life, youre eligible for copydesks on the nations major dailies or fast-growing weeklies, where youll sit with a newspapers brain trust. Their global knowledge will stagger you, as will their common sense and incisive news judgment on deadline. Youll also learn why computers have yet to replace them.

Many copy editors come from the ranks of English teachers and professors. Yet few of the thousands in the classroom have ever had a greater mission vis--vis preserving the magnificence of the English language than these green-eyeshade sentinels. Nor have teachers faced the high-speed, practical application of preserving rules about grammar, spelling, and mechanics. Most have never felt the hourly lash of the presses or endured the daily duty to accuracy and the threat of million-dollar libel suits. Nor have they or the self-appointed language specialists ever been forced to ensure that the quarterly profits continue.

Such is copy editors passionate love affair with words that some do crossword puzzles (and in ink) between editions. Most would draw the line at playing Scrabble, once a tradition for LIFE magazines lively collection of world-class copy editors. That would require play, a pastime almost nonexistent among those with daily deadlines of two or three editions. Crosswords are permissible, however.