As any literary establishment should recognize, the importance of a copy-editor (someone who maintains AP Style in posts), is integral to its success. Every time a fact is incorrect, a name is misspelled or grammar is incorrectly used, the merit of the establishment wanes. I'm here to fix that.
I am, in no way, professionally associated with Destructoid, but, because I'm a nice dude, I offer my copy-editing skills at no charge. Because really, it's too important not to do.
Look for my AP Style assessments in the comment sections of everything every editor writes.
I'll perform every duty an effective copy-editor should. I'll fact-check, reorganize sentences so as to improve their overall fluency and I'll examine grammar for proper use.
Now, hopefully the post author sees my corrections in a timely fashion and updates the entry, but if not, what can I do?
Journalism, whether it be at the New York Times or Destructoid, is rooted in words. Writing is all about clarity, directness and fluency. I appreciate the editorial staff at Destructoid's ability to form eloquent, smooth sentences. But, like any publication, mistakes are made. And I'm here to correct them.
Whether or not you agree with the decisions I make, or that my job exists at all, I will remain diligent in my assault on improper language. You might say "yeah, well, we knew what he was going for," but I won't stand for it.
"Too" does not equal "to" and "their" is not the same as "they're."
AP Style FTW!
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Interesting marketing tactics if that is the case.
... but you fail to realize we care more about communication and personal style here... and less about JOURNALISM.
It makes everything else batshit boring. Trust me, I have to do this type of writing EVERY DAY I GO TO SCHOOL.
And explain the AP Synthesis Essay every pre-AP/AP kid in highschool (in Texas, at least) must pay 20-30 bucks to take.
AP Style doesn't really apply there, there is room to inject opinion into gaming news and blogging. Blogging isn't about the inverted pyramid approach or brevity, which the AP style is.
It will be interesting to see which you choose.
Also, do you like videogames?
I do.
It's one thing to take me aside and tell me that I have a booger in my nose, and it's another to stand on top of a table and in the middle of the cafeteria (in this case, a cafeteria filled with thousands of people) and yell "Hey everybody! Holmes has a booger in his nose! It's big and green! Check it out quick, before you picks it!", then claim that you're doing me so sort of favor.
One is a genuine attempt to help a friend, the other is a passive aggressive attack.
Again, it will be interesting to see which you choose. It will also be interesting to see how the other editors respond to your suggestions, especially Samit.
On a purely technical level, there shouldn't be a comma after you close your parenthesis: "is integral to its success" isn't an independent clause. There shouldn't be a hyphen connecting copy and editor, either.
Stylistically, your opening sentence is a disaster. I would've written it like this: "All literary establishments should recognize the importance of a copy editor: he is integral to the publication's success." I use less words with less appositives muddying your syntax.
Not to mention that maintaining AP style isn't what a copy editor does. A copy editor maintains whichever style the publication chooses to maintain, including style decisions made by the editor in chief -- which may not subscribe to any established style at all.
Cool mohawk, bro.
The regular thing that happens here is this:
-An editor posts an article with a glaring spelling error that either creates confusion (e.g., "Final Fantasy III" instead of "Final Fantasy XIII") or humour (e.g., "Heavy Ran")).
-Someone points out the error in the comments.
-The article is corrected and updated.
-Everyone moves on.
What we don't do is try to criticize their overall writing, or do the equivalent of "this is how I would write this". Marking undergraduate essays myself, I have to take great steps to avoid falling into the latter fallacy. We have to accept that a core concept of news blogging is getting breaking news up as soon as possible, and there isn't always enough time to make the article "perfect". After the article is out, the task of the editor (providing information) is complete, and they move on to writing about the next piece of news, rather than continually tweaking and improving their older posts. We also accept that different people have different writing styles, and that this variety is one of the benefits of reading a site like Destructoid. Destructoid isn't like a newspaper, where the author's "voice" is all but invisible. We want to see each editor's uniqueness. Whether we agree with them or not is another thing altogether, but usually complaints should be about content, not style.
So, in conclusion, you can go ahead and send PM's to the editors with your complaints, and stick around in the cblogs and provide constructive (and not condescending) criticism on community members' posts. But writing full blog posts as an "unofficial copy-editor" is unneeded. How about writing about video games instead? That's why we're here, aren't we?
(Note: I know my writing isn't perfect. My sentences are too long, and I overuse parentheses, among other things. However, that's just how I write, damnit!)
Wait.
Nope. Didn't have a point.
If you are new and definately not one of the old trolls, my apologies.
The D-boys gets all dem biatches.