Conferences

By Hannah Barling Would you rather be clickbait or Google friendly? You don’t have to choose. While there is a difference in the way SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMO (Social Media Optimization) are processed when people are searching for content, the way you format your content for each does not have to differ. So…

By Emily Necciai Arthur Miller once said, “a good newspaper is a nation talking to itself.” With the nation talking about the Germanwings airplane crash in Europe, the “Getting It Right on Mental Health and Suicide” session presented Friday at ACES national conference couldn’t have been more appropriate. Melissa McCoy, an independent media consultant, began…

By Dilane Mitchell There is only one way to create bulletproof a data-driven story: thoroughness. Mark J. Rochester, deputy managing editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, presented ACES national conference attendees Friday with a series of steps and tools that can help publications generate factually sound, data-driven stories. The writing of a data-driven story will actually…

By Katie Antonsson Ben Zimmer, executive editor of Vocabulary.com, Wall Street Journal columnist, chair of the American Dialect Society New Words Committee, and general renaissance man of all things wordy, delivered a wide-ranging, always humorous, and occasionally musical keynote address at the ACES 2015 banquet. Ben Zimmer delivers the keynote address at ACES 19th national…

By Katie Antonsson Running a panel on the nebulous world of internet publishing, Maggie Walter (University of Missouri School of Journalism), Shana McNally (Costco), and Emmy Favilla (BuzzFeed) explained just what it takes to secure a job in copy editing in this day and age. Walter’s overarching advice: “Outwork the guy next to you.” When…

By Dilane Mitchell Copy editors tend to look at language as written, but the spoken word is king. The spelling of words follow pronunciation. Modern English, however, is a written language. Few people really speak that way. Kory Stamper talks about the history of the English language at an ACES session on Thursday. The development…

By Kaitlyn Klein For three consecutive years I have attended the ACES Conference to learn to be a better editor and writer, but today I had my best ACES experience when I attended the Diversity and Sensitivity Around Racial Language session, a session I hope grows and continues at future ACES conferences. It was discussion-based…

By Kaitlyn Klein Journalists and copy editors have felt the fear and stress of a shrinking job market since the recession, but the ACES session “Switching Seats: Transitioning to a New Career or Medium” reminds us that though copy editing can be an unstable career field, there are options beyond your current job. Laura Browning,…

By Hannah Barling “The people who have the power to move the language forward are here at this conference,” said Sarah Grey, editor and owner of Grey Editing LLC and leader of today’s LGBTQ Language session. The session was dialogue focused, which correlates perfectly with the belief that the current LGBTQ language is marginalized and…

By Hannah Barling Just a tip. That’s how Lauren Klinger of Poynter Institute NewsU says you should view content on social media as — as if someone was calling the newsroom in 1975 and giving a news tip. Social media verification is a process, but not a difficult one. Klinger said perpetuating rumors and spreading…