Despite what people in the comments section might say, the New York Times has one of the most elite editing staffs in the media. Editing is paramount to newspapers, mostly because there is no way to lose credibility faster than to use “effect” instead of “affect” or to leave a dangling modifier. And the editors serve a function more important than just making small grammar adjustments; they often are able to catch factual or structural errors that would otherwise be missed. Despite all of this, editors, and copyeditors especially, have been hit particularly hard by the changes in news media. Speed is becoming more important, and a larger portion of content is produced in video format.

Most recently, the Times public editor Liz Spayd wrote “A Hard Look at Times Editing in the Digital Era,” which reveals plans to make changes on the editorial side of the paper. The article makes clear that they value high-quality editing, but it is not particularly optimistic overall. One paragraph is particularly telling:

“The question is no longer whether the editing ranks will be squeezed. It is: How will it happen, when will it happen and how many positions will be lost?”

The Times has not yet laid out their full plans for rearranging the editing desk. There is just cause for this, as the news industry is indisputably different from how it was even 10 years ago. Still, it is a worrying prospect that perhaps speed will be prioritized over editing.

Despite all of this, copyediting will not disappear any time soon. For anyone interested in the field, CALA offers:

• A Career in Copyediting: Freelancing is the New Black

And if you are interested in looking at courses the address the digital changes coming to media, we have:

• Introduction to Digital Media
• Digital Storytelling Platforms and Methods in the Evolving Publishing Landscape

George Orwell’s 1984 was already climbing its way to the top of the charts when Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts” comment placed it securely in first place on Amazon’s best sellers list overnight. Explaining away Sean Spicer’s bald-faced lie – that President Trump’s swearing in drew the “largest audience to ever witness an inauguration” – as “alternative facts,” Conway sent us all reeling off into an alternative reality!

So, a week later, in New York alone, the public library system does not have one copy of 1984 to lend out – but there are long waiting lists across the five boroughs.  In Queens, all 400 copies of Orwell’s dystopian novel are out on loan. Brooklyn’s 71 English-language copies are out, and Manhattan’s 326 English-language, and 40 Spanish translations have holds placed on them.

If you’re on the wait list the NYPL’s Readers Services team recommends: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta, or The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan.

If you feel like you are already living the nightmare, or want a break from apocalyptic fiction, we have some great courses to offer you at CALA this spring. Click on the links below for information and to register.

LITERTURE:

LITR1-CE9950 Eyes on the Prize: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Plays

LITR1-CE9801 Novels for a Changing America

LITR1-CE9723 Pots and Pens: Writing Women in Latin America

LITR1-CE9941 Reading the World: Selections from The New Yorker…

LITR1-CE9082 The Irish Short Story: Oscar Wilde to Edna O’Brien

LITR1-CE9293 Women Fiction Writers

STUDIO ART:

ARTA1-CE9088 Drawing and Painting with Mixed Media

ARTA1-CE9213 Exploring Fashion: Accessory Design

ARTA1-CE9705 Printmaking by Hand…

ART HISTORY:

ARTS1-CE9106 Cutting Edge Camera Art…

ARTS1-CE9334 The Fashion Designer as an Artist

ARTS1-CE9624 Art of the Afro Atlantic…

CINEMA:

Spring 2017 Film Studies

ARTS & HUMANITIES:

Browse all Courses

LANGUAGES:

Browse all Languages

For most students, high school is not the end of education but a stepping stone to college. Ideally, then, high school would prepare everyone for the academic challenge of the college they attend. This is the very goal of the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which has been the subject of political controversy for years. Yet, according to a study by The Hechinger Report, over half a million students were enrolled in at least one remedial class in the last year alone. The study, titled “Most Colleges Enroll Many Students Who Aren’t Prepared for Higher Education,” found the majority of the colleges looked at accept students who need some form of remediation.

There are a number of factors at play here, but none of them completely excuse the failures of the U.S. primary and secondary education systems. For one, a number of first-time students are those not coming directly from high school, and thus it makes sense they may need refreshing. Still, this does not account for all of the students. The rates of remediation are higher at community colleges, so it may be tempting to write this off as a problem for lower-ranking colleges with open-door admission policies, but even in the various California State universities, “more than 40 percent of incoming freshman were deemed not ready for college-level work in at least one subject.” All in all, it points to a fundamental failure in a system that passes on its shortcomings to colleges and universities, which then have to catch up for students that were let down by their schools.

With Betsy DeVos, who is not a friend to the public school system, on track to become Secretary of Education, it is unlikely this situation will be repaired in the near future. Because of this, courses that promote professional writing and grammar are of utmost importance. Fortunately, the Center for Applied Liberal Arts has several offerings, including:

• Grammar Review Crash Course
• Improving Writing Skills
• Writing and Grammar: The Basics
• What’s Your Story? Building Narrative in Business Writing
• Professional Writing with Power