Educational Editing

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"Kiddo! I've got another lesson for you," yelled my desker at the Brandon Sun this summer.

"Mr. Desker", we shall call him, edited many of my stories and put up with all of my rookie mistakes... but not without teaching me a lesson or two along the way.

I walked over to his desk, awaiting a scolding for an error I'd repeated too many times. As I rounded the corner, he walked up to me, menacingly slamming a large, hardcover book between both hands.

He held the book above my head.

"Where is this book?" he asked.

I was a little confused. "Where is it?" I asked.

"Where is this book?"

"Above me?" I replied, meekly.

"It's over your head. OVER your head," he said, lowering the book. "Books go over your head. But charities don't raise OVER $10,000. They raise MORE THAN $10,000."

"OVER!" he said, holding the book above me again. "MORE THAN," he said as he lowered it.

Point taken.

"Got it, Youngin'?" he asked.

I had. I've never made that mistake since.

Mr. Desker's presence is felt throughout the newsroom. A large sign stating, "NO-WHERE IS NOT A WORD IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE" looms over the desk of another reporter, a not-so-friendly reminder to never make that mistake again.

He's a little rough around the edges, but good at what he does, a softy at heart and he really cares about making us better self-editors. And the more he gets his point across, the less he has to be frustrated with our mistakes.

And he sure keeps things entertaining!

For a better explanation of more than versus over, check out Grammar Girl's explanation.