1.10 为《纽约时报》抓错别字，是种什么体验

为《纽约时报》抓错别字，是种什么体验？ 2021.01.10 韩冰彬 CSE7 课程导读 提供准确的信息，是新闻从业者重要的职业准则。审校编辑是一份报纸付印前的质量把关人，即使是微小的错误，也会让他们彻夜难眠。近日，《纽约时报》的一位审校编辑撰文，以幽默的语言风格谈论了自己的工作感受。《纽约时报》对编辑们有什么要求？当一篇稿件中出现不可避免的错误时，编辑们如何应对？一起来听今天的讲解。 本文封面图片选自unsplash.com，如有版权问题，请联系删除。 本篇课程首发于2021年1月10日 英文原文 Because of an Editing Error “因编辑失误……” By David Vecsey My job, simply speaking, is to get things right. So there is no worse feeling than the realization that you have entered a correctable error into print and that a correction will appear a day or two later to proclaim, "Because of an editing error …" 简而言之，我的职责就是确保登报的内容无误。因此，最糟糕的感觉，莫过于在付印之后，你意识到自己犯了一个原可以避免的错误，而一两天后，报纸上将刊登一条勘误声明：“因编辑失误……” There is no escaping the page of the newspaper that you have marred; it reappears everywhere you look: blowing down the sidewalk, on a subway car, wrapped around the sea bass you've just bought at the market. 你休想摆脱被自己玷污的那页报纸。它会一次次出现在你的眼前：它要么在人行道上随风飘荡，要么现身于地铁车厢，要么你去趟市场，它都会被用来包你买的海鲈鱼。 The Times has strict policies on corrections: If it's wrong, even if just for a few minutes online or in one edition of the print newspaper, it is supposed to get a correction. Reporters and editors are expected to self-report their mistakes, which can make you feel a little like Bart Simpson writing on the blackboard, "I will never misquote Shakespeare again." But it is this dedication to accuracy that earns the trust of our readers. 《纽约时报》对勘误的规定很严格。如果出了错，即使只是上线了几分钟，或者只是在一个印版中出现，那就要出勘误。记者和编辑们都要自己报错，这感觉就好像在著名的动画场景里，巴特·辛普森被罚写黑板：“我再也不乱引用莎士比亚了”。然而，正是这份对准确的执着，赢得了读者对我们的信任。 The Corrections listings are one of the first things I read every day, and that is a common practice among many copy editors. It's not necessarily an act of schadenfreude as much as it's a daily reminder of the importance of diligence: Double-check your math. Look up even the most famous of quotations. 每天一早，我首先要读的内容之一就是勘误信息栏。这也是不少审校编辑的例行公事。这倒不全是一种幸灾乐祸的乐趣，也是一种日常提醒：细致很重要。必须反复确认。就算是最广为人知的名人名言，也要检查出处。 But Times corrections are so much more than pedestrian spelling mistakes. They are wonderfully nuanced cultural explorations. When we misidentified the name of Bilbo Baggins's sword in "The Hobbit" as Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver, it was both the greatest and the nerdiest correction of all time. 但《纽约时报》勘误绝不仅是平平无奇的拼写错误。它是一场文化探索，其中充满了美妙的细枝末节。小说《霍比特人》中，比尔博·巴金斯有一把剑。我们曾把它的名字误写成了“名为兽咬剑的斩妖刀”。这种错误，只有读书成痴的人才纠得出。这也是迄今为止最令人叫绝的一次勘误。 One of the veteran reporters said, "Doctors bury their mistakes. Lawyers lock theirs away. But reporters print theirs for the whole damn world to see." 一位资深记者曾说：“医生埋葬自己的错误，律师把它们束之高阁，而记者却把自己的错误印出来，全世界谁都能看。” In the 30-some years from then to now, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that you have to shake off your mistakes and move on. 如果要让我说说，自己从业30多年来最重要的心得，那就是：你必须放下自己的过错，不惧开启新篇章。 【背景知识】 1. 巴特·辛普森被罚写黑板：我再也不乱引用莎士比亚了 《辛普森一家》是美国现象级动画片，其中的小男孩儿Bart Simpson被罚写黑板的场景已成为流行文化中的经典梗（此图为我们为了配合本文而制作的插图，并不是来自于动画片的场景）。 2. 文中提到的《纽约时报》经典勘误： 2011年4月，在一篇介绍棒球队员的文章中，《纽约时报》的一名记者引用了棒球队员的话，但是没有查证出处，因此将小说《霍比特人》主人翁比尔博·巴金斯的武器误写为了Orcrist the Goblin Cleaver，引起了《霍比特人》书迷的愤慨。以下是当时的勘误内容截图：