Copy editors fail to make the grade

Jim Slusher's Sept. 20 letter to the readers raises the issue of the sometimes illogical spelling and grammatical rules of our English language. While I fully appreciate the challenges a "good copy editor" faces each day, I also expect those editors to be equipped with the knowledge and tools to perform their job at a basic level.

I am not overly concerned here with the debatable spelling of words like "Muskie" or "bocci," but rather the myriad obvious grammatical errors, style and composition problems (and a few spelling errors) consistently found printed in your paper.

I fear the copy editors you speak of as having to "fight an uphill battle just to catch obvious and serious" mistakes are not succeeding. I doubt these editors, or some of your writers, ever diagrammed a sentence in grade school English class, and had they been in my college journalism classes, a grade of "C-" would have been generous. In light of this, I suggest a refresher course in Journalism 101 be offered to both editors and writers, and that it include training in use of their word processor's spelling and grammar check tools.

The Herald serves a necessary and important purpose in the suburban area. It is disappointing that it does not hold itself to a higher standard of written journalism.

Ruth Lang

Lake Zurich