Editing
I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember and it’s a passion I feel has directly affected my editing skills. I feel it’s given me a better sense of how and what words should go together and the ability to see the big picture of a story and where the gaps might be. That said, there are aspects of editing that I’ve had to learn over time, especially AP Style as well as developing a process that ensures I don’t get to spend too much time on certain parts of stories, neglecting others.
My process
Something I’ve had to learn over the years is how to compartmentalize when editing stories. Upon entering a story, I’m often tempted to just try to edit everything as I read, trying to catch issues with structure, wording and grammar all at once, but have had to break that habit. By going through a story multiple times, even in just one round of editing, I’m able to understand the story better, which allows me to edit better and catch more.
Step 1: Big Picture
When I look at a story for the first time, particularly a rough or middle draft, the first questions I ask myself are if everything flows well and has either followed the correct structure for that type of story. This is also where I look at if the ordering of the story makes sense or if there is missing context or information that might hinder readers’ understanding. In this round, I also try to point out where the writer has unsupported claims in an opinion piece or subjectivity in a news story.
Step 2: Wording
On my next pass through a story, my main focus is often wording. Like I said earlier, some of this comes down to what ordering or synonym I inherently think sounds better, but some of it’s also a matter of what information needs to come first for the entire sentence or even paragraph to fully make sense. Here, I’m never changing words directly for a writer and very rarely leave suggestions but often a comment saying what I think might sound better but ultimately leaving it up to them and still allowing their voice to shine through.
Step 3: Copy edits
Copy editing is something I try to not do until I’ve gone through everything else in a story. This is where I’m checking for AP and ODYSSEY errors, spelling and grammar. While these are often small enough mistakes for me to just leave a suggestion for the writer, if I notice a pattern of them missing the same thing (ex: not properly abbreviating a month), I’ll leave a comment about it so they can be aware of it moving forward.
Step 4: Conference
Whether I’m going to be the editor conferencing with the writer on the story or not, I always try to leave a general comment at the top of their document outlining areas they did well and ones with room for improvement. I’ve found that by doing this, I’m both giving myself a structure to follow during the conference and a reminder for them on what we talked about. Similarly, I also make sure that they have clear action steps before they walk away to help prevent getting caught up in the minutia of all of the edits left on the document.
Step 5: Last eyes
Part of my job is doing the final edits on stories before they’re published. I most often do this part in WordPress right before I hit the Publish button, checking for any missing AP Style errors, spelling mistakes or general wording issues.
Where I edit
As Digital Editor-in-Chief, I edit every story published on our website multiple times and and everything posted to our social media platforms at least once, but I also have a part in newsmagazine stories as well.
Beats
Beats are 300-word news briefs on a specific sphere in our school community. My first time seeing these is often the day they’re turned in to the Beat Editor, who edits and grades them first. On this round, I often focus on the bigger picture rather than the small things since she’s on the lookout for both. From there, once the story has been conferenced on and resubmitted, we often go through in tandem again, this time focusing on some of the smaller issues. After this, a story is either able to be published or I edit it once more to ensure everything is caught.
Menus (Middle draft)
In ODYSSEY, menus are monthly choice assignments where staffers have the opportunity to write anything from a trivia for Instagram to an editorial or even film a broadcast video or write a satire. The first time I see many of these stories is at the Middle Draft stage, which both the Menu Editor and I leave edits on. Here, staffers are expected to have met most of the requirements on their chosen story’s checklist. All of the edits I leave at this stage are big picture, focusing on structure and clarity, making sure they have a solid direction to go in for their final draft.
Menus (Final draft)
By the final draft deadline, all elements of the chosen story type are expected to be completed and up to standard. I again edit these alongside the Menu Editor and go as hard as possible on everything from clarity to AP Style and multimedia design. After conferences and resubmissions, I often edit these stories again upwards of three times to get them ready to be published, whether on their own on the website or as part of a multimedia package.
Social Media
Some social media content, like trivia, falls under Menus, but other times it can be a caption the Social Media Coordinator or a photographer has written for a photo carousel or a graphic someone has made with an accompanying caption. My first round of editing on captions is done in a document, which is where I’m mainly focusing on making sure it follows the correct format. I like to give feedback on graphics either in person or by leaving comments on the Canva file. After that initial round, the Social Media Coordinator will send all elements of the post to the social media group chat, where I do a last check for any errors before giving approval to post.
Newsmagazine
Most of my editing on the newsmagazine happens in the final stages. I usually do this on a printout of the full magazine with all stories that can be in layout. At this point, previous editors should have caught all big picture issues, so my main focus is on the details: AP and ODYSSEY Style, wording, proper caption formatting, etc.
