EDITOR@WORK: Sam Bradford

Found online: The Heisman Trophy-winning Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford announced Sunday that he would have season-ending surgery to his right shoulder in hopes of entering April’s N.F.L. draft.

The beginning of the sentence is what we call a stacked modifier.

Many newspapers would change that to this:

Sam Bradford, the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from Oklahoma,... It would be a lot cleaner and easier to read. Besides, I like to get the person's name up front.

EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com BLUESKY: PROFILE

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

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!

ENTRIES FROM THE DOG BLOG

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• 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

Monday, August 31, 2009

Not perfect

When I was in high school, my teachers had a fit if my written and spoken language weren't perfect. They hoped I'd become a teacher, and they wanted those traits to carry through me.

I became something similar. I'm a writer and editor, and I've made a career out of getting things right. But I have to admit that I don't mind if my grammar or syntax aren't perfect.

I don't care if I boldly split an infinitive, and I'm not above ending a sentence with a preposition. I'll even start a sentence with and or but, something many grammarians cringe at (yes, I think I just ended a sentence with a preposition).

Recently, I edited a newspaper story about Colt McCoy of Texas being under the Heisman Trophy shadow of former Heisman winners Sam Bradford of Oklahoma and Tim Tebow of Florida. I used FORMER HEISMEN in a headline to refer to Bradford and Tebow. It's not something I recommend you do regularly, but I think it got the point across there.

I'll use a sentence fragment to make a point. I'm not above using "ain't" in a spoken sentence if it strengthens the point. Remember, we don't write to be perfect; it's for communication. If a sentence fragment, a dangling participle, a well-used ain't or other written faus pax gets in there, so be it.

It ain't about Miss Smith from eighth grade; it's about communication.

Having said all that, you must have a style for your newspaper, magazine, online publication or whatever. When I'm editing a novel or non-fiction book, I check spelling and look for proper syntax. The writer comes off a little more elegant than he would anyway.

Even if she uses a sentence fragment or dangles a participle. Sometimes it's good to be bad.