January 2025 – Subbing Clinic

#607

Daily Express, January 2, 2025

Tip: if you mis-spell a word, do not put the correct version a few lines later. Stick to your guns and claim that ‘installment’ is right. I cannot understand how someone who calls him/herself (I resist ‘their’ as lazy) a ‘sub-editor’ cannot see that there are two spellings of the same word in two sentences. This is pathetic.

I cannot stress strongly enough that it takes years of experience to make a good sub-editor. When I was a junior sub, almost everyone else in the department was older and wiser, and the benefit of their experience was passed down to me. A chief sub would often point out how things could be improved. These days most older subs have been dispensed with and there is no one to teach or mentor the younger ones. Staffs have been so reduced that no one has time to guide anyone else.

This clinic is an attempt to pass on my experience using real examples. I would love to receive items from others as I do not read every paper every day. I will add new entries as I come across them.