IT PAYS TO PAY YOUR PROOFREADER (AND HERE’S THE PROOF)

I’m not just a reporter at the Ledger/Star/Observer/Register, I’m pretty much an entire weekly newspaper onto myself.

Not to brag, but I handle the Page 3’s, the Events Calendar, Classifieds, Legal Notices (Okay, that last part isn’t very much). Now I’m responsible for writing the new “Brevity” page each week. I don’t know if “Brevity” is exactly the soul of wit – or if there’s anything remotely witty about summarizing local press releases into bite-sized 200-word morsels – but I’m pretty sure we’re more entertaining than "Christa Cuts,” the weekly column that exists for no other reason than to give a whiny bimbo who’s related to the publisher some work.

My job also involves proofreading and copyediting on Tuesdays, which are the days we go to press. I happen to enjoy that aspect of my job quite a bit. I get to speak softly, and carry a big red pen. I read copy directly off the proof post-layout. Yes, catching the mistakes of my fellow reporters can be disheartening due to the extraordinary level of hero worship I feel for them. More often than not, however, catching mistakes is hysterically funny.

The specific incident I’m thinking about took place a few weeks ago. N. is one of the paper’s star reporters, and also happens to hold the title of “Community Editor.” He’s a cool guy, and during my first few weeks aboard gave me lots of excellent pointers on how to put a story together. I was editing one of his articles – we always edit each other’s stuff at the Ledger/Star/Observer/Register, and never our own work. It involved a prominent assemblywoman’s visit to an elementary school in Brooklyn Heights.

The politician was giving a speech to a mixed batch of second, third, and fourth graders. In her rhetoric, she focused on how few women serve as representatives in New York State’s legislative assembly. Her point, however, had to do with age and young girl’s perception of inequality based on gender. The younger your age, said the politician, the more likely you were to believe that men and women received equal opportunity in the political arena.

Now, this was a great point, and N. got some outstanding quotes from the assemblywoman. But he made a miniscule, albeit crucial mistake transcribing one of the quotes for his article. This might have been disastrous, or caused lots of guffaws among our competitors at least, had we gone to print with that error intact. Luckily, a certain eagle-eyed proofreader/copyeditor caught it during the eleventh hour and saved the day.

Here’s a transcript of what the politician was supposed to have said:

“There are over 200 people in the state assembly. How many of them do you think are women? Most girls in kindergarten say 50 percent. Most girls in high school, however, say only five-to-ten percent.”

N. accidentally used the word “women” instead of “people” in that first sentence. As a result, what the assemblywoman said sounded logical, but was nothing short of a revelation.

“There are over 200 women in the state assembly. How many of them do you think are women? Most girls in kindergarten say 50 percent. Most girls in high school, however, say only five-to-ten percent.”

I showed that to N., who realized he made a mistake, but still laughed a whole lot over what the new quote said. Then he showed it to S., the managing editor. He gave the uncorrected proof the once-over, and also burst out laughing. “We should run it the way it is,” he said. “Then, in next week’s Ledger we can do a follow-up: ‘What our children are learning in kindergarten.’”

I was in support of that idea, but I think we elected to fix the quote and attribute the assemblywoman’s actual words to her. Even though mistakes do happen in the newspaper business. For example, take last week’s “Christa Cuts,” which a certain eagle-eyed proofreader/copyeditor accidentally keyed in as “Christa Putz.” Total blunder on my part. I really do feel bad about it, too, because really – what a great column.