Copy Editing Assignment: Michael Brown NYT Article

This past week, we were assigned to read and edit the Michael Brown story that ran in the New York Times on August 24th. After reading the article,  I found that the reporter "painted the scene" too much. The article itself put Michael on trial for Being "no angel." So when I read through the article again, I marked out sections that I found to be insensitive, ergo anything that gave the notion that Brown was just a bad kid. In addition to this editing, I must say that there really is not a difference between the terms "no angel" and "not perfect," but I find that they should not have been used. The reason is that no one, NO ONE, is an angel and no one is certainly perfect. It's just a fact of life and being human. So, in essence, I find that that phrase in the article should just be omitted entirely as it does not really pertain to the overall story. Finally, while the New York Times has it's own writing style, I edited the piece as best I could according to the Associated Press Stylebook, ergo removing the "Mr." and "Ms." in front of every mention of a person, I found it to be confusing, and personally annoying. Below are photos of my editing job that I sent to my instructor.

Introduction

This blog will be used for the course JMC 305- Copy Editing. I will be posting critiques, edits of the Friday edition of USA Today's Life section, and other information and material that pertains to the course.  I hope those who follow or come across this blog find it useful. Thanks for stopping by and reading my post!