Ouch! This hurts

There’s a reason journalists are referred to as wordsmiths. Our Chester base is witness to numerous battles with language, as trainees, fast trackers and sub-editors employ their own strategies to forge words into news stories. I listen to people desperately reading their embryonic headlines out loud, hoping vocalisation will help (it often does); I watch people trawling endlessly through the dictionary for the perfect word; and I overhear arguments about the nuance of a particular term. I entered into a spirited debate over the difference between fraud, theft and embezzlement – with hasty consulting of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists. Sometimes we manage to craft the perfect story, with a lead that sings, where no word is wasted, no double meanings creep in and no ironclad rule is flouted. Sometimes we don’t, and can be seen walking the halls in frustration when the words just won’t be bent to our will. But everyone keeps trying, from new trainee to experienced editor, and partly that’s what we want them to learn: that this process is difficult. After all, we are trying to bring news stories into the world – and we all know that giving birth hurts. (By Lisa Essex, long-suffering sub editor)