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editing experience
1. Bad editing examples
2. Good editing examples
3. Notes on editing
4. Notes on conferencing
5. Fact-checking
Table of contents
Editing is something I am familiar with and a very big part of my job. Though editing has been my biggest struggle thus far, there has been a lot of improvement. I try very hard to stick to my editing philosophy. That you should first always focus on organization and structure, then zoom in a bit on transitions and information, then zoom all the way in on smaller copy and details. Sometimes that process requires more steps in between, but ideally, that is how I edit a story.
Bad editing examples
Left: Here is a collection of screenshots that show some very poor editing I have done. Right off the bat, I can say I was trying, but I knew so little about the things to look for that this was the result. These examples, while embarrassing for me, also show how much I have grown in the editing department. I wanted to talk about the failures here because editing has been my biggest challenge. Here are some things I have learned to look for: passive voice, organization struggles in the organization of stories, flow, first/second/third person, and whether the right information is present. AP style, etc.
Good editing examples
Above: In the photo collage are different good editing examples. As you can see by comparing the dates of my two editing example sections during the second semester, my editing has gotten a lot better. With that being said, I am still improving every day. I have taken on the challenge for myself to edit as much as I can. During the last cycle, I edited all of my staff's work stories along with an entire other staff. I am always looking for other pieces to edit because I know that is where I need the most improvement. It is very important to me that I can be a reliable editor for my publication so I can support other writers. As the Managing Editor, I spend a lot of my time giving feedback and critiquing, which this year has taken place more in conferences or on paper; still, I have some digital examples. Each of these edits was followed up on by a conference where I walked through my edits and made sure everything made sense. Editing may not be my strongest suit, but I still put a lot of effort into it to ensure that every story meets our standards.
Notes on editing
Right: In the PDF is a document that has my notes on editing from two different sessions I attended at the 2024 fall National Scholastic Press Association. The first session focused more on a professional in the field teaching us about copy editing, which helped me reimagine my process of editing copy. The second session was led by Buck Ryan and he taught me a lot about the basics of editing which I had some gaps in. Some things I learned were the importance of checking for the Seven Flashing lights (7 small details that can get lost in the copy) and the power of a Google search when editing.
Notes on conferencing
Left: In this PDF are notes from an ODYSSEY/iliad Leadership Seminar in which we discussed conferencing and editing. Conferencing is a must because when we, as editors, give edits, we have to make sure they are understood fully. Some of the information in this session I already knew, like different conferencing styles, like the Oreo method, and bless, press, address, and decompress. In practice, I tend to use a mix of different conferencing methods with a focus on the staffer explaining their story to me and their intentions. Overall, I really enjoyed conferencing because it's all about helping a staffer understand what they need to do to improve.
Notes for conferencing
Right: On the right is a document that has all of my notes from Issue 1 of the ODYSSEY at the Rough Draft deadline. These notes served as a guide for all the conferences I needed to have with the staff. I included questions and edits on as much as they had at that deadline. These notes helped me work with staffers to ensure story progress was made. I was also able to follow up on these notes further down the production process. Overall, I am a big note taker, so it's very important to me that I keep all my notes together and share them with others.
Fact-check always
Example slide 1
Example slide 2
Example slide 4
Example slide 1
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Fact-checking
​Above and below: In the presentation above this textbox is example slides from a presentation I made last year on fact-checking. As the Diversity and Representation Editor, a large part of my job was fact-checking every draft that came my way. These slide examples should provide you with a good idea of my process in fact-checking, as well as what I was trying to teach the staff so they could check themselves. I even came up with a clever acronym for quotes called SOUND, which is on the fourth slide of the gallery. Below this textbox is a screenshot of a portion of my spreadsheet that held my notes from fact-checking middle drafts for the first issue last year. As I fact-checked, I always made notes and comments so I could conferernce over my concerns with the given staffer.
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