Quotes, jump lines and other stuff

Editing a quotation: Normally, I don't mind adding information to a direct quotation. "It was a great year for (head coach) Joe Schmoe," said John Doe, Schmoe's assistant.

But I found this quote on Thursday: "He’s in [Executive Vice President of Football Operations] Bill Parcells’ office every day, changing player names who are waived, signed, or what have you," Leo Howe said. “He didn’t want to coach, he wanted to be in the front office."

That is too much. I might take out the bracketed part and change the attribution to ," Leo Howe said of the Miami Dolphins' executive vice president of football operations. And that last sentence might be better as "He didn't want to coach; he wanted to be in the front office."

Jump lines: I find jump lines interesting. In 1983, I interviewed a guy named Charles Seay, and his last name was pronounced See. Our jump-line style for his story made it SEE SEAY, Page 2-C. Sounded redundant.

Web site: Check out Word Reference. It looks like it'll be a useful site.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com  TWITTER: EDITORatWORK.

More EDITOR@WORK blog entries

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!