This story originally appeared on UPIU.com

WOLLONGONG, Australia - Even when he's away from his desk, he's drawn to pointing out the grammatical and spelling errors in printed materials. When he's at a restaurant he checks the menu. If there's a spelling error, most likely he won’t order the food.

After 15 years as a journalist, an eye for language and syntax has become second nature to Glen Humphries, feature writer and former entertainment editor at the Illawarra Mercury (and pictured, right).

"I wish someone had told me how irritating you find incorrect grammar when you're a sub-editor, especially outside of work ... when I’m in a restaurant I check the menu, I pick out spelling mistakes straight away and if something’s spelled wrong I won't order it," he says.

Humphries grew up in Kingsgrove in Sydney and came to Wollongong in 1990 to study at the University of Wollongong. He started at the Illawarra Mercury in 1994 as a cadet reporter and moved on to writing features, supplements, entertainment, night reporting, sub-editing and opinion writing.

Although he is, occasionally, assigned stories by the editor, he says looking for your own is crucial to excel in journalism.

"You've pretty much got it now," he says, pointing to the abundant new media forms available to student journalists to chase their dreams of becoming professionals.

The key is "getting out there and finding stories."

"You’ve got to show you're doing something instead of waiting for someone to give you something to do."

Using his experiences with film and book reviews, Humphries points out that journalists should be prepared for the reaction they may get when writing opinion pieces.

"I’ve been called politically incorrect...but it's just my opinion. I’ve never had a problem with people criticising me ... I'm not an expert but because it's in the paper people think I am."

However, Humphries is also level-headed when his readers share his opinion. "It’s flattering if people pay attention to your opinion, but it’s just like if you were at a party and raved on about a movie and people went and saw it because of that...I can reach a larger scale of people."

He feels a responsibility to be honest in his reviews, for instance, when deciding which film to review. How does he ensure that his personal interests do not sway his reviews?

"You have to trust your judgement," he says. “[If] I found that (story) interesting, I bet there’s other people who find that interesting too."

What about when personal and professional interests overlap? "It’s nice when that happens," he says, because it’s easier to be interested in your work and you’re willing to do that bit extra because it’s not just a job. If you can make that personal investment in your work, he says, you’d enjoy it more and you become better at it.

"I'll read Rolling Stone or Empire magazine ... it’s technically research for work but I’d be doing it anyway because I like it."

However, it’s not just personal interests that are important. A good feature team has people with different interests, who will generate a range of stories to attract more readers. Thus, the different coverage by male and female writers to cater to the different demographics.

“We wouldn't want a cover appealing to women three weeks in a row...you want variety from different interests and tastes.”

On how to become a good feature writer, he says feature writing falls in between straight news stories and opinion pieces. While the reporter is able to share their views to an extent, they are still reporting on a subject, and this is the key.

"I’m like a megaphone for [the subject]...they’re the story," he says.

He adjusts his writing style to suit the material, for instance, injecting a bit of humour into a light-hearted feature to engage the reader.

Is sub-editing a stressful job? He assures it’s not a struggle, but refreshing to have a mix of duties instead of focusing solely on feature writing.

Has he ever had difficulty keeping the original 'voice' of an article he’s editing? The voice can usually be found in the introduction, he says, as that’s where you can see where the writer is going.

Once he understands the article he’s usually just fighting for line space by eliminating words where he can. If he makes a change that may affect the article, he consults his editor.

Would he consider a career move to Sydney? Not likely.

“I believe work is where you spend one third of your day, so where you spend the other two thirds is pretty important.”

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