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October 4, 2002
Me Write Newspaper Good
So let me reiterate why I decided to volunteer for Imprint, the University of Waterloo Student newspaper. Ever since my first term in September 1997, I have had a low opinion of the paper for several valid reasons. Their lack of proofreading (I once saw the word "student" misspelled), their blatant opinion pieces thinly veiled as news stories (especially stories involving government funding), and the general irrelevance of their articles.
One time I even wrote a letter to the editor to complain about how there were two stories (one by the editor himself) glorifying this artist/women's-rights activist who took her own life, and the life of her three-year-old son. I gently pointed out that killing an innocent toddler negates any good reputation she gained by painting watercolours or having the Miss Waterloo pageant removed from campus.
(I would include links to said stories, but the Imprint web site has a poor search engine, as well as a habit of not being updated. As a type this rant, last week's cover is featured on this week's online issue).
So what did they do to cross the line this time? What did they print to send me into a ranting fury?
Well, as I mentioned above, and in a September entry, I volunteered to write for the news section. My first assignment? Write a lead-up story describing the October 4-6 campus residence Survivor game. Even though Survivor isn't one of the shows I drop everything to watch, I agreed. It would involve a lead-up story, a description of the contestants, and eventually, a story on how it all went.
Well, here's the edited version of lead-up story they printed.
The article I submitted ended the 5th paragraph with this sentence:
"Survivor UW has 16 contestants from all residences, chosen from 55 as opposed to Survivor CLT which only had 13 people sign up."
For those of you too lazy to read the article yourself, this is what they printed (emphasis added to edited parts):
"Survivor UW has 16 contestants from all residences, chosen from 55 as opposed to Survivor CLT where only had 13 people participated."
In the print version of this week's issue, there are head-shots of the contestants plus a few lines describing them. Apparently whoever edited this, thought that "Business Major" was better spelled with two Bs.
Now who looks the fool for this butchering of the English language? My editor? He told me he was unaware of the changes. The head proofreader? It wouldn't be the first time he let something slip (notice how the first paragraph breaks in mid-sentence, and how the president of Wilfred Laurier Student Publications' name changes from "Field" to "Filed"). In fact, I have no idea who even altered my article!
Now the blame falls squarely on the writer's shoulders. They didn't even label me as Imprint staff, just "Chris Lyon - Special to Imprint". Maybe that way they have an excuse to blame me if the article sucks, since I'm not technically part of the staff.
The whole reason I volunteered was to try to raise the bar of quality for this newspaper run by student volunteers. Yes, I know they're not getting paid, and yes, I know they have exams and assignments to do. But so do I! And when I go to the trouble of actually running a spellchecker on my work, I don't appreciate having them add collections of letters that vaguely resemble words, but aren't really English.
So what's the moral here? Never volunteer for anything. No, that's not fair. I've had a word with my editor and we're going to work hard on making next week's issue better. And if things don't get better? Then I guess I'll have more to rant about.