I haven’t posted much lately. I haven’t merely been sitting around reading about journalism in The New Yorker. There was the tragic news of Minghui Yu, which demanded a lot of attention both as a concerned student and as a journalist trying to figure out what happened. There’s been a lot of late breaking news, too, like the Teachers College story and the empty but momentarily street-freezing bomb threat. When news breaks late, we have to decide whether to delay our printing of the paper, change the front page’s layout, spend time reporting, and finally have the paper come out later. It’s a case-by-case call, but what I look for in this case is to measure how much time reporting will take, how important the news is–and with that, how much will we lose by having the physical newspaper hit stands later–and, finally, whether we have enough original reporting (as opposed to citing the New York Times or Associated Press) to merit foregoing a simple update of the web site and reworking the physical paper. I originally wanted to comment on the NYer piece when it came out, but then the breaking news delayed that. I feel like the piece is a few years late anyway, so why not dive into it a little late?

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The NYT ran an article the other day that has been floating around the Copy section ever since (and props to Amanda Sebba, a former Copy associate herself, who has been enjoying it with the rest of us). It can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/nyregion/18semicolon.html?ex=1360990800&en=d1bd9cdb6531580c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss.

I’m not sure the semicolon has really been entirely jettisoned as a “pretentious anachronism,” but while Neil Neches should of course be commended on his correct usage of the notoriously slippery punctuation mark, this seemed like a good time to make my Editors Blog debut talking about something near and dear to all the copy editors at Spectator—the mighty em dash (see what I just did there??).

While we take most of Spec style from the Associated Press Stylebook, which is pretty much standard fare for most newspapers around the country, we are pretty strict on semicolon usage, which is not explicitly prohibited by the AP. The basic rationale is that this is a newspaper, not a Lit Hum paper, and as copy editors, we value writing that is clear, concise, and vigorous. Semicolons tend to obscure that goal by making sentences longer, so we use the more direct (and pretty) em dash.
Observe:
“The exhibit shows Johns’ willingness to experiment with different materials—paint, pencil, charcoal, and clay are all present, as well as silverware, rulers, flashlights, and string.”

The em dash basically takes the place of a semicolon and provides a clearer, more distinct pause between the two parts of the sentence. We love em dashes so much, in fact, that above the copydesk there is a sign that says “OPTION+SHIFT+HYPHEN” (the way to make an em dash on a Mac) to remind wayward Op-ed columnists and newswriters on deadline.

Not that most (any?) of you care about punctuation TOO much, but it’s worth nothing that the cockles of this copy editor’s heart were further warmed by the correction appended to the Times article and sent to me by News associate and former Copy staffer Mary Kohlmann:
“An article in some editions on Monday about a New York City Transit employee’s deft use of the semicolon in a public service placard was less deft in its punctuation of the title of a book by Lynne Truss, who called the placard a “lovely example” of proper punctuation. The title of the book is “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” — not “Eats Shoots & Leaves.” (The subtitle of Ms. Truss’s book is “The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.”)”

The iron fist of Copy justice strikes again!