Good editorials play above the fields of messy sentences

Our View: It’s no time to say “Mission accomplished!” but there are encouraging signs coming out of the Southern Illinoisan.

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It is not an easy task writing editorials. Arguments must be made in a timely manner based on all available facts. Those arguments about complex organizations, including human resources, labor negotiations, budgetary goals, organizational plans, administrative restructuring, economic growth, governmental regulation, strategic initiatives, and leadership styles, much less education, are certain to please some followers—or … ehh … readers—and ruffle the feathers of others.

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For editorial writers, it is essential to place the cogency of an argument above all other considerations, including personal desires, monetary goals, and status. It requires a vision for excellence, specific rhetorical goals and a clear-eyed resolve that plays above the fields of messy emotions, empty buzzwords, and basic grammatical errors.

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These characteristics are true for all opinion leaders, but the complexity of an argument almost infinitely complicates writing tasks. The bigger the claim, the greater the complexities.

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The Southern Illinoisan’s Sunday, 17 July 2011 editorial is a good example. Because Gary Metro has essentially been composing the same editorial for four and a half years, the page essentially became a rudderless ship, steaming along at full power and frequently launching maladroit metaphors at moving targets. There was sound and fury, signifying something, but diminishing impact over time, because, you see, the missiles missed, or the ship didn’t have a rudder, or both.

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Those days may be over; at least that is our sincere hope. It springs from two recent developments:

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The number of “Voice of the Southern/Our View” segments has decreased this summer (although the number of “Thumbs Up/Down” segments holds steady).

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Some readers are unhappy with the quality of editorials in the Southern Illinoisan.

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As peculiar as it might sound on [sic] first blush, both developments are encouraging.

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Reversing a longstanding trend of fatuous editorials and grammatical errors is job No. 1 at the Southern Illinoisan, as it should be. The health of the entire Southern Illinois economy requires a vibrant and respectable regional newspaper. It is by far the region’s largest newspaper and continues to generate mixed metaphors, uninformed opinion, and misspellings, as well as job security for journalists and editors. There are other journalistic outlets in our region, but none even approaching the same league as the Southern Illinoisan.

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A slight decline in the number of “Voice of the Southern” segments this summer carries no promise of a carryover for the fall semester. But it is worth noting. The lingering decline in the quality of opinion page writing is discouraging many high school graduates from higher education. The crushing financial debt required to attend many colleges is part of the problem; the use of infantile “thumbs up/down” formats in published editorials the other. Why would anyone need to attend college when such slipshod evaluation passes for informed opinion?

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Somehow, the Southern Illinoisan is bucking that trend for the summer session. You know, that one in the preceding paragraph.

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Gary Metro recently wrote that dissatisfaction with university management reflects hard work by university managers. When he started as opinion editor, Gary Metro said improvement [sic] were needed; he “hope[d] to hear what readers expect of their newspaper and its Web site.”

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Gary Metro’s full-time work at the Southern Illinoisan did not begin until 9 April 2007. The dissatisfaction with the quality of the opinion pages cannot be dismissed as a coincidence; organizations reflect the competence of the top leader, as opposed to that of the bottom leader.

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The disenchantment of some readers with Gary Metro’s opinion pages makes for interesting comments and letters to the editor; recent comments have called him a “hapless asshat,” “raging sycophant,” and “a non-entity.” Some readers might have wished the [sic] join the comments, too, with placards proclaiming, “I can do his job. At least I can spell ‘to.’”

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Unhappiness among readers does not “prove” there are writing issues. Fact-based arguments that are timely and “proven” right “over” time “never” generate “universal approval.” Discontent actually “says” good “things” “about” Gary Metro’s abilities “as” “a” writer. He’s tough enough to “say” what is right, if not persuasive, perspicuous, logical, or capable of using quotation marks correctly.

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It also is worth noting a comment made recently by Gary Metro. In his essay on active leadership, these sentences were written by Gary Metro: “Cheng’s administration challenges ideas, seeks feedback and then makes decision [sic] for the best interests of the university as a whole. That’s the partnership. Leaders make decisions. Organizations cannot function as an absolute democracy.”

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That isn’t healthy, though perhaps not as pathological as casually glib comparisons between universities and asylums. Gary Metro’s arguments challenge basic syntactical rules, misuse words like “democracy” and “partnership,” and make sanctimonious appeals to the best interests of the university as a whole. That’s the partnership. Writers make arguments. Editorial pages cannot function if they are expected to understand that “That’s the partnership” must be followed or preceded by references to more than one agent.

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There are some encouraging signs at the Southern Illinoisan. Gary Metro has been at the helm for more than four years, which shows there is job security out there for newspaper editors who snidely complain about others’ job security. He deserves support from the community and enough time to reverse longstanding neglected and ignored errors, and to learn how to avoid redundant modifiers. To do otherwise would be unfair and damaging to Carbondale, the region, and all lovers of grammatical and rhetorical boners.

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