Editing.
Stories with style errors or unclear wording can completely destroy the content and turn away a reader. That’s why we work diligently to make sure every story follows every AP Style rule and makes points in the clearest way possible. This starts by having a plan, which is set out when I release the production calendar. First, a writer edits his own story, followed by a thorough review of each story by the two section editors of each section. Once a story is put on a page, the page designer makes sure each story on his page is at its best. Finally, Work Saturday allows three edits of each page(both story and design) before going to the adviser and senior staff for a final check.
Style Rules
Necessary to passing beginning journalism is a vast knowledge of these style rules. AP style is the gospel, but there are some St. Mark’s specific rules as well. These, along with grammar and spelling errors, are what we look for as we start the copy editing process.
The editing process
As the assignments editor for the paper, I have the job of planning out each production cycle with a calendar and keeping everyone true to their deadlines. The key days for each cycle look like this:
Pitch Day
Beats Due
Slotting Meeting
Stories Due(EDITS)
Edited Stories Due(EDITS)
Page Due(EDITS)
Work Saturday(EDITS)
Clearly, editing is a huge part of our process. We have 4 different days where multiple people edit a story or page to ensure minimal errors when the paper is released. As an editor, I constantly remind our staff that editing should be done even more thoroughly than the writing itself.
Staying true to innovating our program, I instigated one massive change to our editing process. This year, for the first time, all copy editing is done through Google Docs. It is much more efficient for both the editor and writer, and I have found editors can not only make straight copy edits easier, but also can give advice to young writers through the comments feature.
Not the masterpiece I thought it was…
As an exercise to show a sample of my editing prowess, I have decided to edit my own work: my first-ever story on the ReMarker. While I may have thought my work was perfect at the time, as a cocky freshman given his own CVI, I clearly show in the edited copy below that it was not.