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A while ago, Mr. Editor explained that we have double
issues of the Times so that he can take a break once in a while. Many
people said in the BBS that they hated
the
thought of having one large issue every two weeks. At first, I was
one
of those people, but something odd happened to me that you wouldn't
expect would change
my point of view.
I got a pain in my neck.
I know this sounds weird, but have you ever gotten that sharp jab
in the back of your neck when sitting at the computer too long? I
imagine this is what the Editor has every day from working on our
little
paper.
Just imagine being the Editor of the Whyville Times. It is your
duty to get the paper out every single week to the Whyvillians so they
can stay on top of what is happening in our little town. It must
be
very difficult.
So I propose we help our dear Editor. I think he needs some people to
help him get the paper ready! Maybe some people to sort the mail
by
topic, some people to review the stories and sort between the
good and
not so good (there are never any bad stories), and then the
Editor could pick out the stories he really likes out of the
good pile
and place them into our paper. City Workers would probably be the
best
choice, or some veteran Whyvillians. Or maybe even the Senators
could
choose who would be the best for each job. We could have a team
of
people behind the paper, like in real life!
If my plan does somehow come into action, we could have a better
paper than ever before (I don't know if it could get much better!) and
most importantly, the Editor could get his well-deserved break.
Remember how much he has done for us in the past.
*click, click*
ABbayb290
Editor's
Note: Thanks for your vote of confidence, ABbayb290! I
appreciate the support. I also hope you all understand that I'm not
taking a break during that week after a double issue comes out! Oh, no!
There's always more articles coming in for me to catch up on reading.
In fact, making sure that every article that is submitted gets a fair
chance to be read and considered is the main reason we have double
issues. :) The good news is, from what I read in the BBS, it seemed
that more folks favor double issues -- which have more than double the
usual articles -- over having to shrink the regularly-sized paper.
City Workers have indeed talked about creating tools that would let
veteran citizens join the editing team on the Times. However, it's a
pretty big effort that we're not sure would pay off... so in the
meantime, we're probably going to stick with double issues coming out
every month or so.
That said, if you want to really help me out, folks, I've got one BIG
request: Learn what the rules are, and please do your best to follow
them. Check out the How To Submit To The Times article, and stick with
the guidelines there. If you get that right, you simplify my life AND
majorly improve your chances of getting published!
While we're on the subject, here are a few more pointers to help
yourself and the ol' Editor. Number one, we've been getting a shocking
number of plagiarized submissions lately. That means folks either don't
realize that it's WRONG to take something somebody else wrote and claim
you wrote it, or they actually think they can get it by me. Either way,
they are mistaken. Plagiarists aren't tolerated at the Times -- one
offense can be enough to ban
you from ever being published in the Times, and two times will
guarantee it. If you're not sure if you're using enough of your own
words, check with a good teacher -- they can not only help you figure
it out, they can also help you with my next request.
Please write in the English language. Do not write in chat language.
Articles filled with "u ppl r soooo crazzie" find their way to the
Times trash folder faster than you can say "Boo!" on Halloween. And
it's too bad, because more than a few of these articles have promise as
something you'd like to read -- if you could read it easily. I know
most of our citizens can read chat talk as fast or faster than pure
English, but we keep a different standard here (and pure chat posing as
an article gives me headaches :-P )... so please, run it through a
spell-check. Better yet, do the spell-check and then have an adult read
through it, not only for grammar and plagiarism questions, but to help
you figure out what might improve the story. No article is perfect! :)
Thank you all for your help, your submissions and your support. Happy
Halloween everybody!
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