Show and tell?

What's wrong with this heading?

Exciting plans for SJB unveiled

Clue: it has something to do with the rule "Show don't tell"

Apparently for newspaper headings, you don't include unnecessary adjectives to express opinion (i.e. exciting). Just 'show' what has happened or been done.

Trees to be planted at SJB 

or

SJB's green corridor to be extended

Another lesson to learn . . .

Two heads are better

I've made some improvement with my headers but there’s still so much room for improvement. For example, for an article about a man who published a book on his life on his 80^th birthday, I created the heading “80^th birthday book reveals author’s colourful life”. The heading was finally changed (and improved) by better editors to read “Octogenarian publishes memoirs”! Where did he find ‘octogenarian’? And ‘memoirs’ for ‘book on colourful life’ was just brilliant!

My other headers (I write about 6-12 headers for reports I am assigned to edit) that were changed reveal a lack on my part – I didn’t mention ‘who’ in the headline. “More campaigns promised” became “SMC promises more drives . . .” and “. . . family day a big success” to “. . . family day a big success for members”

Lastly, I also have a tremendous opportunity to better my editing skills. A senior editor took one of my edited articles and improved on it, showing me how much more I could have done to create a better edited report. I realise redundancy of words is a no-no and flow of information is important. Lastly, if only one guy is quoted saying this and that throughout the report, I can drop the “he said” and “he added” usually used. Thanks T.

Oh my headers

The heading for a news report is very important but one requires a unique skill to be able to create correct and interesting ones. I realised this when several headings I had okayed were changed before printing and the corrected ones were, I believe, better. I am thankful for these examples and the challenge to create better headings. Here are some samples of before and after headings:

B: Woman loses bag in car as she pops into convenience store

A: Woman loses expensive items when motorcyclist steals bag

B: Foreign duo held over RM480000 from robberies

A: Foreign duo detained to help in probe into robberies

B; Robbery spills into the great Rajang

A: Armed duo rob boat skipper

There's much to learn by just comparing these before and after headings - go figure!

Of writers and layout guys

Back to work after two days off. 

Today I learnt that as an editor I am not to assume what the reporter has written is completely correct and acceptable - I can rearrange paragraphs, rephrase sentences and even alter the focus of the news if the one selected by the writer is considered less important as opposed to something else also in the report. Even so, contacting the reporter first to discuss what he/she wrote and to run through changes you plan to make is a good idea. 

The page editing is also challenging especially when there are mistakes and changes you must make quickly and correctly before the page is approved and sent for printing. Today one of the layout guys was slow in preparing one of the pages I was assigned to edit - had to wait about 1 1/2 hours to get the finished page. Even so, glad he managed to get it done before 11 pm.

Ooops . . . oh no!

I made a grammatical error in one of the headlines last night so got called by the boss for a drink and a friendly rebuke cum explanation on my mistake and how to improve. This has made me more cautious and less confident in my editing abilities but this is how one learns . . .
Just realised I have to cancel several speaking engagements as they are all at night on days I am working. Will my social life (meetings, functions etc.) and ministry (night meetings) be affected by my work-at-night schedule to the point of it being detrimental? Only time will tell . . .
I'm on leave for the next two days (Wednesday and Thursday are my present off days).

New Life!

Yesterday I began a new career as an editor at the Borneo Post. Yes, I resigned from Lodge International School (goodbye school life and demands) to take up something new and challenging. It's interesting many ask me, "So what actually does an editor do?" Well, I'm slowly finding out.  I started yesterday by editing  8 news articles and then edited page 3 of the newspaper (yes, editing means checking the written work to ensure its readable, content-correct and grammatically right - just like what I did for all the essays my students wrote!). I got to work around 2 pm and finally finished my assigned task around 11.30 pm. Picked up some do's and don't's and began building some vital relationships. 

Durian Hope

Several years ago, when I was still living in the farm and believed my dream of developing the farm into a financially viable project, I managed to get several durian seedlings from the Agriculture Department. The seedlings were supposed to be of some good (clone) quality. Now, one of those seedlings not only managed to survive and grow up but has produced some fruits - for the first time.

The tree is not too tall but looks healthy.

There are about 8-10 fruits slowly developing and if the squirrels don't get to them and eat all up, maybe this year end, I'll have a few durians to eat.