Sub-editors: how can I avoid killing them?

Also, the most brilliant person I've ever known, the most brilliant person on ILX in my view, and its most dazzlingly good writer (all one person) is a sub-editor.

Ailsa, does anyone generally copy-edit job ads?

Ailsa: it has no subs! All those sections make me weep (I'm on the daily, btw)
xposts ahoy

that's the thing! if your writing truly does show originality and flair, that'll shine through no matter what the red pen does to it. trust me, a couple of word substitutions and deleted repetitions are not going to scratch the gleam off the hope diamond.

The job -- and the term -- comes from being literally the substitute for the editor

gotcha. don't understand why an editor would need a substitute, but i'm satisfied with your answer.

OTM re: flair. I find the ones who sound off the most about having it removed had hardly any to begin with, just high-school gimmery.

xpost: yeh? come and compete nationally with six quality papers and five tabloids for a market of five million readers in a landmass smaller than Oregon. You people don't know you're born!

I have no idea. You'd think, somewhere along the line, someone would, especially if it's in a national publication. The Her4ld is joyous compared to the horror that is the jobc3ntre website. Today I saw an advert for a job that required the applicant to work in a "fast paste environment". OK, "paced" *sounds* like "paste", but still, GET ONE COMMON SENSE!

That was supposed to be Jennifer Aniston in Office Space, wearing "flair" buttons.

"editors as allies" is very true. most editors want to have good working relationships with their writers. they want a stable of talented, reliable, open-minded people to draw from (and then all those fledgling jelus mofos can call it nepotism). you can't do that if you're a bridge-burning asshole.

The ad I answered to get my current job was riddled with mistakes, quite big ones too - a pretty good indicator of how crap our personnel section is, as it turns out - but I think it worked in my favour because I was one of very few people who went for it after realising that the length of the contract was 18 months and not 18 days as stated.

wtf does it mean when it says that, please?

http://homepage.mac.com/mattvant/Pix/TravMatt.jpg
"Aw thanks, Martin!"

one starts as a reporter and works their way up :)

what training do you have, emsk? the NUJ runs subbing courses all over the place: they'd be a good place to start.

also: i fear a large part of PA's subbing operation is now in yorkshire somewhere. (or is it lancashire? no, that's northern and shell. ach: subs please check.)

if you want, drop me an e-mail off board (use the webmail link or i'll not see it for years) and i can give you the benefit of my immense wisdom hem-hem-hem.

No wonder RJG is on the run.

oh, wank. wonder why? goddamn ilx. never mind. i found it (in my spam folder) and shall reply when sober, over the weekend.

(And here's a peeve: That scene in Shattered Glass where the publisher makes the whole editing staff go through the whole magazine circling every comma to make sure that each one has a complementary comma to go with it. Which only makes sense when you're using commas to set off a clause, not if you're breaking up discrete parts of a sentence. It was like, the movie was trying to show these wonky editors hard at wonky work, but it got the details wrong.

Then of course there's the move where Drew Barrymore is a copyeditor at a Chicago newspaper with her own office and personal assistant. Oh how I laughed. And cried.)

you're joking, of course, ronan. but let's just assume that this is a parallel universe and you're not ...

1) i wouldn't trust anyone who uses three dog-dicks to have the first idea what to do with a comma ;)

2) did you ever write a dissertation on commas? 'cos i did. you can read it if you want. no, really. come back ...

anyway. that's not why i came here. i came to say: emsk, did you get my e-mail? any use?

this is my favorite movie ever! her name is JOSIE GROSSIE!

emsk: no worries at all! glad to be of service.

they're both pretty thankless jobs. (well, except drew-as-writer gets to kiss the cute, with-it teacher at the end.)