Dr. Arnold Speaks with Newswriting Class

            Long-time serving faculty member at Marshall University and author of the “Media Writer’s Handbook,” came back to Huntington Tuesday to speak to a newswriting class about his confessions as a “grammarholic.”

            George T. Arnold, journalism professor at Marshall from 1968 to 2004 who taught classes dealing with newspaper writing and editing, told students what he learned from the 35 years of experience as a “habitual” copy editor.

            Arnold said he wrote the handbook, published in 1996, because nothing in the market back then provided this information in a suitable manner. He said that he is working on the sixth edition which is due out soon.

            Arnold, in his humorous sense, told students about specific instances that inspired him to write “Confession of a ‘Grammarholic’.” He said “it annoys me when I see those nice stones that sit in driveways and it says the Jone’s or the William’s when is should be the Joneses or the Williamses.” He told of the State Fair of West Virginia incident in which he spoke with a woman that designs these rocks and was asked to leave when his critique offended her.

            Arnold said that he admits to correcting everything and bothering everybody but it’s just habit considering his work with copy editing. He said he usually leaves notes for the managers about the mistakes that he reads but is typically “given a cookie and pointed to the door.”

            Arnold told of an article he had written entitled “I Don’t Sound Like a Vice President,” where Arnold focuses on the use of pretentious language. He said he once had a graduate student that worked for one of the university’s vice presidents. Arnold said her boss was not pleased with her after she eliminated the wordiness and simplified the language because it didn’t make her sound like a vice president.

            Arnold talked about the new chapter he is including in the sixth edition of the handbook and discussed the fundamentals of journalism writing. Arnold said “you don’t need to apologize for your mountain accent,” when he discussed various types of people and the ways in which they speak.

            Arnold moved to South Carolina 1 year ago and is still collecting material for future editions of his book which has been adopted by over 80 colleges and universities. Arnold said that he will continue coming back to Marshall as often as he can.