Why I never write "spokesperson" in a story

Any time I hear or read the word “spokesperson,” I hear a cane pounding on the newsroom floor.

After college, I spent a year working at a public relations firm in Boston where using the word spokesperson was the norm – expected.

The first time I used the word in a newspaper story, managing editor Bob Moore yelled across the room “Thomas, come here.”

Moore had been an editor at The Boston Globe before he started working at The Tab. A little shorter than me, he had silver hair, blue eyes and wore glasses. He looked like the nicest guy in the world – yet he struck fear in the heart of every reporter.

“Sit down,” he told me. “See this word – spokesperson – do you know the difference between a man and a woman?”

“Yes,” I answered.

“Obviously you don’t because if you did, you wouldn’t have used spokesperson. Don’t ever use it again,” as he pounded his cane on the floor. “And if you do, don’t expect to work here.”

I got his message. I never have used the word again.

Over the years, I have had many editors – some who taught me valuable lessons and others who made me question every word I wrote and some who made me doubt I could write.

And over the years, I have had readers tell me my writing was awful - after writing a story on the northern spotted owl and the BLM - a reader wrote to me saying my story wasn't good enough to line his bird cage.

As a rookie reporter, the words stung. As I grew as a writer, I learned some people will like what I write, some people won't and some people don't care.

The lesson I have learned is whose advice or criticism I should take to heart. I have also learned who I should say thank you for your feedback but not let their negativity get to me.

As the managing editor of Our Town, I think carefully about what I am going to say before I talk with a reporter about his or her story.

My goal is to encourage, support, teach and inform. Sometimes, when I am editing a sloppy copy story, I want to call the reporter and ask him or her if she knows how to follow directions, ever looked through an AP Style Manual, reads a newspaper and knows the period goes inside the quotation marks … I get especially grouchy when I have eight pages to layout and a story arrives late – full of mistakes.
Then I remember how I felt the times an editor, a friend or even a teacher used words to make me feel insignificant, stupid, … and how those words hurt.
I know every one of my reporters is doing the best work he or she can and he or she makes a mistake it’s not intentional. And if I chew them up one side and down another, what good will that do?
Words have power – they can open doors; shine light through a dusty window and they can cause people to add locks to door and never open the curtains on their windows.

I know in my lifetime I have said things I deeply regret. I have used words to cause harm.

And I know after doing so, I don't feel any better - just the opposite - much, much worse.
Here’s hoping we all think before we speak or write and we realize we can make or break a day with the words we say.
Sounds a little corny – yes – but it’s true. At least for me.