Mike Charnoff on the The Bullet

UMW Alum, Mike Charnoff, Class of 1995 talks abouts The Bullet

Category:

Education

Tags:

• umw
• alumni
• digital
• history
• The
• Bullet
• mwc

[copymosheen]

4. Even now, I copy-edit articles by professional writers, edited by professional editors, and I have those same questions ("Did you flip these numbers?"), and I correct spelling, punctuation, syntax, etc. That's just what copy editors do. It's not like the Bullet kids were the only people ever to make such mistakes. Copy editors are best tolerated when they're helping to make things better -- and not smugly pointing out other people's mistakes.

[copymosheen]

3. I doubt that the paper was riddled with typos, although I'm sure there were some typos in each issue. But you can't even read through a copy of the Washington Post without finding some typos. I joined the Bullet my freshman year to help copy-edit. I read a lot of Bullet articles over four years in the various editor positions I had. I'm employed as a copy editor today! I think the hyperbole about how many mistakes there were and having to correct "a million commas" is unfair.

[copymosheen]

2. Most of the kids who worked on the Bullet did it because they were dedicated to informing the college community about what was going on there. Most of us worked long hours, on most days of the week, for no pay (and, after the course was instituted, one credit per semester) simply because we loved it. We just loved being in that messy Bullet office, helping out, keeping the community connected.

[copymosheen]

1. Ham-fisted? Amateurish? Hardly. The Bullet was honored as one of the top college papers in the country in 1994. It was one of a handful of student papers to be named a Pacemaker Finalist. The awards were judged on coverage, content, quality of reporting, etc. It was a big deal for the Bullet -- a newspaper from a small college without a journalism major -- to be honored like that.

[copymosheen]

Thanks for opening up the comments again. I'm posting my response in four parts. -Jill

[brevitything]

And I defy anyone to find any typos in this comment.

[brevitything]

Awesome!