Capitalization

As I mentioned, I worked as a journalist and then transitioned into marketing writing for businesses. In journalism, I would edit trained writers. In business, I would edit salesmen, executives, office people, etc. – people without writer training and often without writing talent. The biggest difference – IMO, capitalization.

Journalists are trained to under-capitalize (to create a word). Generally, journalistic writing capitalizes fewer words than normal writing. AP style gives certain specific reasons to capitalize a word. If there is no such reason, then they do not. For instance a journalist might write "Mike Smith, company president."

When I switched to business, I found that businesspeople over-capitalize. They will capitalizes in the middle of sentences for strange reasons or no reason that I can discern.

Mostly, Z is an under-capitalizer. I didn’t see a WTF capitalized word until the 6/26/70 letter and the LIttle List letter. There are maybe four or five in the whole series. If we found out tomorrow that the Zodiac were in fact a journalist, the first thing I would say would be, "Well, he was an under-capitalizer."

Also, look at the way he writes newspaper titles in the text of letters. "the San Francisco Examiner" "the Vallejo Times-Herald" "the San Francisco Chronicle" "the Times" (LA TImes). I suspect 90 percent of people would capitalize the "the" in this situation. That’s not the AP style rule. AP would have us capitalize the "the" only if it is part of the formal title of the paper. in the case of the Chronicle, it does not appear to be part of the formal title. for the Examiner,his style appears to be incorrect – from what I can tell, the "the" is a part of their title. But I’m less concerned with his accuracy than I am with his tendency, which is to under-capitalize. Looking up each title would be a pain, so Z defaults to not capitalizing.

In one letter, Z refers to the "north bay area." Notice no capitals. Many people would capitalize, but it’s not a formal place name. In another letter, he refers to the "San Francisco Bay Area." That’s interesting. If I came at that inexperienced, I would say it should be "San Francisco Bay area." But I looked at the Chronicle online, and they capitalize "Bay Area." So I find that interesting. As that is likely a matter for each paper’s in-house style, I would be curious which papers capitalize it which way.

He also noticeably does not capitalize "editor" in the text of one of the first letters. He does, obviously, in the salutations. He also does not capitalize "cops" or "police," which I think some people would do, incorrectly.

For comparison, take a look at the unconfirmed 1973 Albany Medical Center letter. Look at the line: "But you had Better hurry because I’m going to kill Her August 10th at 5:00 P.M. when the shift change. Albany is a Nice Town." That’s six capitalization errors (from a journalism point of view) in two sentences. The time and date also are all screwed up. For a journalist, it should go, "But you had better hurry because I’m going to kill her at 5 p.m. Aug. 10, when the shifts change. Albany is a nice town."

Months and Dates

In the 11/8/69 letter …
I find this really interesting. Z lists four months: “July, Aug. Sept. Oct.” From the perspective of AP Style this is technically incorrect. You would not abbreviate the month unless a number follows – you would write the month out. But this isn’t an article, and let’s say Z decided to abbreviate. How would you do it? If you were to abbreviate in AP style, then you would abbreviate them exactly this way. Most notably, in AP style, July is never abbreviated. It is always written out (so are March, April, May and June – all the short ones). Even if there’s an error, on one technical level, I think this would be evidence of a journalism background.

In the three-part letter ….
Z refers to the "4th of July." This is wrong for a journalist. The holiday would be written "Fourth of July." The date would be "July 4." Notice no "th." In AP style, there are no "th" endings on dates. Ever. Z has a habit of putting them on. In the Chronicle letter he writes "Fry. 1st of Aug.," which is reversed. "Friday, Aug. 1" would be correct. Obviously these things go against a journalistic background.

Numbers

Probably the thing going most against Z as a journalist is his use of numbers. It’s important to keep in mind that journalists are not obligated to write in AP Style outside of work, and I would say that the way that they write out numbers would be one area where they might break the rules. I’m sure that I do all the time when posting online. That said, it appears that Z has a numbering system in his writing. However, that numbering system is inconsistent with AP style.

Usually, journalists write out the numbers one through nine. Then all numbers 10 and over are written as numerals. There are also specific times that single digits are written as numerals – measurements, age, etc. 5 feet. 7 years old. And sportswriters have their own rules and customs.

What I find in Zodiac’s writing is that in text he consistently writes out the number "one." However for numbers two through nine, he usually writes them as numerals, e.g. "This is the murderer of the 2 teenagers …." In the 4/20/ letter, he also in one instance writes "ten people" rather than making it a numeral (that’s different than most of his writing – usually he does make 10 a numeral.). His choices are generally consistent throughout the letters, so it seems to me that he is working with a system. But it’s not the standard journalist system. There is not a lot more to say about this observation.

I should note that when Z describes distances and sizes, he does use numerals, which is consistent with journalism.

Series/Lists

one of the big fights in grammar in recent times has been over the so-called serial comma, the Oxford comma, whatever term you use. Grammarians are passionate about it. Basically it comes down to this: Do you write "apples, oranges, and pears" or "apples, oranges and pears?" Do you put the comma (the so-called serial comma) before the "and" or not?

Journalist do not use the serial comma. "apples, oranges and pears."

I only noticed one such instance in the confirmed Z writings. Z does use the serial comma. From the 11/9/69 letter, he writes "they shall look like routine robberies, killings of anger, + a few fake accidents, etc." Also of note, the grammar is off here – technically there should not be an "and" ("+") prior to an "etc."

For the most part, Z generally does not even bother with the commas in these situations. He typically writes the equivalent of "apples + oranges + pears."

Z also tends not to follow the rules of grammar/style on numbered lists. But who does? I don’t make a whole lot of that.

Interesting thread. I will read this over a bit more closely later.

Teens, kids and children

For whatever reason, AP style has some very strange rules about the way journalists write about youths. Z mostly ignores these rules.

1) Teen-ager – it appears this has changed recently. But for years AP Style insisted on the weird spelling "teen-ager." I learned it that way in the nineties. I’m would certainly expect it to be the practice in the sixties. In the three-part letter Z does add a hyphen in the VTH letter. But that’s because the word is split between two lines. In the other two letters they are written "teenagers" and "teen agers" with a possible space between the two syllables.

2) Kids – Z famously refer to BRS victims as "kids." he also talks about school kids, kiddies, "cids," etc. Journalists generally don’t use "kids." As an editor of mine would say, "Kids are baby goats." Journalists use "children."

3) Z writes "school children." Two words. AP Style is "schoolchildren." One word.

I wouldn’t expect a journalist to necessarily adhere to these rules outside of work. But if Z had hyphenated "teen-ager" I would be leading the cops down to the SF Chronicle to start looking for clues. Obviously that’s not the case.

Other assorted things

Z famously uses "shall," which no reporter would use in a story. They would use "will." On the other hand, Z does use "will" often. And he tends to correctly write his phrases in the style of "will run" rather than "will be running."

Z uses "thus" in one letter, which is a scholarly word more than a journalistic word.

He uses "state" for "said" several times. In writing, reporters are discouraged from using "state." They use "said" mostly, or occasionally some other word. But journalists will use "state" in certain situations. And they will use it when speaking, such as asking questions at a press conference.

In the Feb. 1974 letter, Z places a sentence-ending period after quotation marks. Very incorrect.

Z correctly uses quotation marks around movie titles.

Z correctly uses "lyeing" rather than "laying."

Like a journalist, Z is relatively good about avoiding too many passive verb choices.

He twice abbreviates "Street" to "St." in the Stine letter. Technically he’s incorrect – a journalist would only abbreviate when there is a specific street number involved. (Washington Street, 0 Washington St.). But the abbreviation is correct.

Like a journalist, tends to use "want" rather than "would like."

And back to capitalization for a sec ….

In the 6/26/70 letter, Zodiac capitalizes "Fall" but lower-cases "summer." The correct journalistic way is to lower-case. This is one of the great differences between AP and everyday writing. Unfortunately, he got one right and one wrong.

He also seems to have capitalized the B in "Blast." on a couple of occasions.

There are rules/customs on the use of semicolons. For the life of me, I don’t remember them offhand. I’ll do my best to find out.

I worked as a journalist for about decade. Now I work as a marketing writer. With considerable speculation out there about whether or not Z had a background in journalism, and with even one prominently-speculated-upon journalist, I thought it might be valuable to take a look at the Zodiac letters from a journalistic perspective.

In doing so, I am not particularly interested in spelling, grammar or some punctuation errors. The speculation that Z faked his spelling errors strikes me as at least plausible and likely correct. Journalists pick up particular writing habits based on AP style and other professional conventions. Some of these differ significantly from the way that everyday people tend to write. While something written by a journalist in private might not have the same rigorous journalistic standards, some of these habits likely remain in place.

For one example, in the August 1969 "Unveiled" letter, Z uses the word "backwards." This is a violation of AP Style – journalists do not add an ‘S" at the end of "toward," "upward,’""backward," etc.

Going into this, I expected to come out with the opinion that Zodiac was not a journalist. Instead, I would rule it inconclusive. If I had to bet the house, I would bet on "no." There are a significant number of errors/choices that go against AP style/convention. But there are some things about Z’s writing that I cannot entirely dismiss. Honestly, it would not surprise me if he had some level of journalism background, even if it were only high school journalism class.

I will run through some examples in the next few posts.

It was often thought Zodiac may have had British parentage or had been influenced by the theatre on account of his use of the word shall etc, but in American English words like onward, upward and backward are usually used in the shortened version, whereas in Britain we use onwards, upwards and backwards.

It was often thought Zodiac may have had British parentage or had been influenced by the theatre on account of his use of the word shall etc, but in American English words like onward, upward and backward are usually used in the shortened version, whereas in Britain we use onwards, upwards and backwards.

There seems a few indicators of this British influence — this is a good catch, one of which I wasn’t aware.

From a broad look at Z’s body of work, I would vote "not a journalist." I base this on the observation that the writing as a whole has an inexperienced feel to it (IMO). Even if spelling and grammar errors were faked, I am struck by an undeveloped and immature style. Even if disguised, a journalist would have a difficult-to-hide familiarity with having been exposed to an audience. Z’s earliest letters are like a guitarist at a first-time open mic.

That is not to say he wasn’t around journalists, or exposed to them in some other way. And he does seem graphically inclined (ciphers, varied penmanship.)

Maybe a one-time journalism student, but not journalist as a career?

I’m looking over the Gaikowski Good Times articles on ZK.com. Some very interesting stuff. I’ve been skeptical of RG, but … stay tuned.

Z did use the journalistic convention of starting some letters (July 31, Stine etc.) with the "who, what, where, when, how" i.e. an attention grabbing opening with the key details.

If not journalism, I guess we could think of the Z missives as press releases.

Good Times uses "stated" frequently instead of "said." As noted, Z uses "state" quite a bit.

There are also a number of sentences that start with "And" or "But." Obviously for a journalist, that’s a huge no-no. Zodiac does that all the time. In fact, I pretty much dismissed that habit when I read the letters. I didn’t figure it would have any application to looking at the journalism angle.

The numbering system that appears in the Good Times is kind of all over the place. Some articles have very strict adherence to AP style – one to nine, 10 to 100,000, etc. However, some articles have no numerals at all. I did not see any examples of single digits being types as numerals, outside of the accepted AP exceptions. It’s quite different from Z.

In one article, the writer uses the term "black" for African-Americans. I believe that is still the AP style. Keep in mind that Z used "negro." That said, I think it is interesting that Z did not capitalize "negro."

http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/topic/6 … eMZin1Xpv8

In this article, they twice identify a intersection. On first reference, it’s "Beach and Hyde Streets." On second reference, it’s "Beach and Hyde Sts." Note in the Stine letter, when talking about the intersection, that Z abbreviates the St. after each street name. So it is similar to the second reference here. The second reference goes against AP Style. IIRC. At other times i n other stories, they don’t even bother with streets at all. They don’t seem to be very strict about it. Or they changed their style internally.

http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/topic/2 … eMoLn1Xpv8

In this article, "backwards" and "upwards" have the letter "s" at the end.

The article also contains a semi-colon. Z uses a semi-colon twice in one early letter.

http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/topic/6 … eMpkH1Xpv8

Notice the under-capitalizing in this article. The location is referred to, correctly, as "the Family Dog" and "the Dog." A lot of people,writing normally, would capitalize the "the."

More importantly, notice how they refer to the title of the paper. "the Good Times." Lower-case "the." Remember that Zodiac always lower-cases the "the" in his newspaper titles.

In contrast to the Z letter, the time and date here goes "Sunday, August 24." That’s correct style. And Good Times doesn’t seem to abbreviate months very often, if ever, even when AP says they should. Z abbreviates months on several occasions.

And the writer does avoid the "s" on "toward."

http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/topic/2 … eMsu31Xpv8
This article shows that Good Times refers to "the Examiner." Lower-case "the."

http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/topic/2 … eMv9n1Xpv8
In this article, the serial comma appears one time (against AP style) but is absent in another place where it could. In other words 1 right, 1 wrong by AP style. Z used the serial comma.

http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/topic/2 … eM26H1Xpv8
This article refers to "the SF Chronicle," like Z does.

Refers to "the Bay Area." Area being capitalized, like Z.

http://zodiackiller.fr.yuku.com/topic/2 … eM6qH1Xpv8

That appears to be "top secret". with the period outside of the quotation marks. Oh my.

In this article, the writer uses "about 200" and "about 150." Journalists use "about." Zodiac uses "aprox."

Anyway, some in each direction. A lot of interesting stuff. I’m still digesting it.

One last thing … I find this sentence in the August 69 letter interesting:

"In that epasode, the police were wondering as to how I could shoot + hit my victoms in the dark. They did not openly state this, but implied this by saying it was a well lit night + ….."

That strikes me as a very journalist-y thing to write. Notice how Z corrects the accuracy of the record here. Would a normal person go back and clarify the record, or would they just keep going with the point they were going to make?