Adventures in Obit Writing 101

[liz_marcs]

Breaking radio silence because I

Comments

[dragonydreams]

Sadly, newspapers don't have copy editors anymore. I read an article online today that had at least a dozen punctuations mistakes. (How hard is it to end a sentence with a period? At least 5 of the ones in this story ended with no punctuation.)

I was looking for the obit today, but I guess I know why I didn't find it yet. Is it going in both papers?

[liz_marcs]

It's not going into any of the Boston papers. Only Worcester, as far as I know.

[janedavitt]

That is mind boggling that no one proofs them. Glad you caught it and got it polished up nicely.

[liz_marcs]

I knew that the copy editors were becoming a dying breed, but trusting a reporter on deadline to do the work is insane. Even the best ones are going to miss a lot.

[curiouswombat]

Oh my - that so totally is a plan.

When my mother asked if we had noticed the barbed wire and search towers in a local churchyard I really did begin to wonder whether she'd had another stroke and was confused - until she passed me the local paper where two different obits told us that someone would be 'interned at Andreas'.

[flaming_muse]

You know, my mother had a similar experience with her father's obituary, but she didn't come up with the utterly brilliant idea of making money off of re-writing them. You win. :)

[sharonsays]

Crazy family members can make this even more fun. When I told my mother that I was not yet able to write a notice (not a full obit, just a freakin' death notice) she ordered my sister to call and help me at a fairly ungodly hour but the task defeated us both.

If you're wondering why we couldn't manage something so simple, just put your Monty Python voice in your head. The almost deceased wasn't quite dead yet. I kid you not.