Chapter 8: The Role of the Copy Editor

​"If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first-greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy." --Dorothy Parker

American humorist Dorothy Parker could also apply that to editors.

​There's an old joke among Journalism School graduates: "Four years ago, I couldn't spell 'journalist.' Now I are one."

They also say behind every good writer is a good editor. The two go hand-in-hand. Editors not only fix typos, correct spelling and check for grammar and syntax. but also, in the case of newspapers, are the last line of defense against a possible libel suit. 

I don't know if it was my background in English or just a natural affinity, but I came to enjoy editing almost as much as writing. And since editors also are the ones to write the headlines, I was still able to keep my hand in that arena, too.

There's a fine art to headline writing. The goal is capture the essence of the story and at the same time, make the reader want to read it. News organizations, like Associated Press and the Society of Professional Journalists, held contests for the best headlines. And it wasn't always the flashy, big story headlines that won. That was the case for one of my copy desk colleagues.

Back in the day, newspapers ran what were called "fillers." These were one or two-paragraph, random factoids that were used to fill the spaces left on a page if a story ran short. I rememeber well the mind-numbing job of composing dozens of headlines for fillers that were held in reserve for when they were needed.

The filler in question was about a certain species of mole that had the remarkable ability to burrow 100 miles in a single night. The headline he wrote, which later did win an award, was:

---

​But he Seldom Wants To

You can find many examples of headlines offering inadvertent humor ("County to Pay $250,000 to Advertise Lack of Funds"), odes to Captain Obvious ("Federal Agents Raid Gun Shop, Find Weapons"), head shakers ("Dog Saves Owner's Life After Cat Starts Fire") and maybe the all-time classic from The New York Post: "Headless Body Found in Topless Bar." We've all seen the photo of President Truman holding aloft a newspaper emblazoned with  "Dewey Defeats Truman," the headline, just like Pearl Harbor, that will live in infamy.

The general rule for headlines is the bigger the type size, the bigger the story. My former copy desk boss referred to it as the "Second Coming" type, because that would be the kind of story that would warrant using it.

We had two "Bibles," as it were, to guide us when we edited stories: the aforementioned "The Elements of Style," by E.B. White and William Strunk Jr., and the "AP Stylebook." Editors were tasked with virtually memorizing both, and tested as well. It's been a while, but I recall one of the cardinal rules was only three titles should be capitalized in a standalone context: President, Pope and Dalai Lama.

While reporters got the glory, and held the jobs that were most coveted by J-school graduates, editors by and large demanded higher salaries and were harder to recruit. And while my career got its start on the copy desk, I found a way to eventually have a foot in both camps. But before I could get a foot in any camp, I had to find a job. Back in Fort Worth, that meant only one thing: Applying as soon as I could at The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
​

---