Editing for Newspapers and Magazines was a new journalism course to teach at Chapel Hill for this aging PhD candidate. But I started daily newspaper editing at age 17. Passed editing and edited the newspaper as a University of Texas student.
My students soon learned what I had learned from some demanding editors. When you came to class, lectures were short. There was a textbook. But most of the time students edited copy, wrote headlines, designed pages—that this demanding teaching fellow critiqued and graded on the spot. Same way I learned editing.
When I was told Carolina demanded a final exam even for performance courses, I announced the requirement and listened to the groans. Then I asked, “Can’t anyone say something nice about requiring a final exam?”
Margot Fletcher—still remember she was from Raleigh and later took a political campaign writing course from me—answered:
“Well, I will say this. When you get the final exam, you finally know what the professor thought was important.”
“Margot, that’s wisdom beyond your years. I can’t skip writing an exam, but I will pass out the multiple-choice part of your exam first day my editing class meets next semester.” And I did.
Returned to Austin with a PhD. Taught editing. Passed out multiple-choice questions first day of class.
Then I heard, via my son who was one of her admirers, that a coed dropped my editing course after the first day. Her mother approved and said, “What kind of weirdo professor gives the final exam on the first day of class?”
Photo by Lamai Prasitsuwan at Shutterstock
