How can I distance myself from an article published under my name, with edits I disagree with?
I wrote an article for a university newspaper that summarizes incidents involving racism on campus. After edits, the sentence structure became uniformly long instead of varied, straightforward vocabulary was placed with ten-dollar words, and two sentences in a row now begin with the same clause ("In response,...").
Worst of all, the article now ends by telling the reader how to think. The original draft (which I still have) presents the facts and lets the reader draw his/her own conclusions. Now it ends by stating that the events describe will make it clear that racist individuals will receive consequences.
In brief, the article makes me look preachy and bad at writing. It also disrespects the smarts of the reader, by essentially repetitively stating "...and this event is racist", rather than letting the reader think for himself/herself. The editor is confident that the new version is superior to the previous.
The article's going to show up if people Google my name. I'm unsettled and unhappy about this. Is there anything I can do to distance myself from the article?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/36268. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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I was the editor of my university paper back in the day. Chris Sunami's answer is right; university newspapers are produced by amateurs, people learning the trade (who might not even be taking journalism-related coursework), and they sometimes err. In addition to following the very good advice from Chris, you can ask for a retraction in the next edition. A conventional wording would be something like this:
The article (title) published in the (date) edition was incorrectly attributed to (author). (Publication name) regrets the error.
Normally there would be a sentence after the first one like "the article was actually written by X"; if you'd be more comfortable having the person who edited it (or the editorial team) take full responsibility, even though you wrote the first draft, you could ask for that. Without some attribution some readers will wonder, but newspapers have other "unsigned" content too, like editorials (usually). It sounds like your article was an opinion or analysis piece, and sometimes those are group efforts, so while leaving the attribution "hanging" like this might raise a few eyebrows, it won't be that unusual.
For online content they can also attach this to the page itself -- update the author credit at the top, and at the bottom include a note like "An earlier version of this article was published with incorrect attribution".
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This is probably a not uncommon problem for less professional publications, where editorial norms may not be as well-understood. That's not to say that ALL college publications are less professional, but some of them certainly are. I'm sure the editor thinks he/she was doing you a big favor.
I would start by having a conversation with the publication, but try not to be overly confrontational. Just state that the edits changed your work so much that you no longer wish to be credited with it, and ask if they would be willing to replace the digital version of the article with a less heavily edited version, or at least remove your name from it. Don't assume they'll be hostile --they might be very responsive to your concerns. If they won't do either (or even if they do, if you're concerned about the print edition), send them a letter and ask them to publish it in the letters to the editor section, summarizing, again in very neutral language, your problems with the published version, and the reasons you wish not to be associated with it.
Before you do any of that, however, please reread the edited article. Is it possible the edits are for the better, or at least, not as harmful/intrusive as you think? We're all protective of our own writing, and it can be hard to accept even positive changes at first. Once you've given the rewritten version a fair shake, ask yourself which is worse, to let the published version stand as your work, or to go public with your displeasure.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36292. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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