Life in a Nutshell

Coming to "Terms" with Community News

The terms:

Bleed: In printing, bleed is the ink that goes beyond the edge of where the sheet will be trimmed. In other words, the bleed is the area to be trimmed off

Graveyard: The area at the end of any reporter's text where they lay to rest pieces of the story that need to die.

Morgue: In modern usage, the morgue file has expanded to cover many post-production materials for use of reference, or an inactive job file. The term is popular in the newspaper business to describe the file that holds past issues flats. Everyone needs a morgue file.

Post-Mortem: A project post-mortem, also called a project retrospective, is a process for evaluating the success (or failure) of a project's ability to meet business goals. We use this term frequently to judge the effectiveness of different printed publications.

Deadline: The latest time or date by which something should be completed. Historically, a line drawn around a prison beyond which prisoners were liable to be shot, (which actually sounds about right in modern usage too.)

Gutter: A gutter is an additional margin designed to allow space for binding or other finishing options.

Widows and Orphans: In typesetting, widows and orphans are lines at the beginning or end of a paragraph that are left dangling at the top or bottom of a page or column, separated from the rest of the paragraph.

Body text: The body text or body copy is the text forming the main content of a book, magazine, web page, or any other printed or digital work.

Ligature: In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes or letters are joined to form a single glyph.

Scare quotes: Quote marks used around a word or phrase when they are not required, thereby eliciting attention or doubts.

Bullet: In typography, a bullet is a typographical symbol or glyph used to introduce items in a list.

Dagger: A dagger, obelisk, or obelus † is a typographical mark that usually indicates a footnote if an asterisk has already been used.

Kill your Darling: This phrase has been attributed to writer and Nobel prize laureate William Faulkner. It means that writers must ruthlessly eliminate any words, characters, side plots or turns of phrase that we personally love but that do nothing for the story. I personally struggle with this, and there's a prime example below!

Beat: A beat is a particular topic or subject area that a reporter covers. Most journalists working in print and online news cover beats.

The Story:

Every day during my senior year of college, I walked by our local community newspaper and looked with longing at the low brick building with its glass front and solid squat form. The name of the paper was emblazoned on the front in the same font used for the Masthead. The big metal sign beckoned me like a siren song, and I grew more and more attached to that building through the year.

But, I already had a job as the assistant conference coordinator for the University's Elderhostel program. It was a great job and provided me with endless opportunities for conversation with entertaining octogenarians on vacation to see the Shakespearean plays at the Festival downtown. I also had lots of opportunity to help out the Linen Crew when they were short staffed.