Copy Editing
I wanted to make sure when I edited stories I was focused not only on correcting grammar and AP Style, but also using a hands-on approach to help writers improve at every aspect of journalistic writing.
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I did this with two main strategies. The first was making sure to maintain direct communication with writers when editing their stories, either in-person or through our communication service Webex.
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The second was making sure that when I left comments, they always explained why certain edits needed to be made as well as engaging in dialogue with the writer about the changes so that they could learn and apply the comments to other stories.
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A breakdown of my editing process is to the right.
1
Read Through
My first step when editing stories is always to read through the entire piece without marking an edit. While this can be time consuming, it's always helpful for me to get a full grasp of the story before I begin to mark edits.
2
Big picture edits
The next step for me when editing is to look at bigger picture issues within a story. These include structure issues, ensuring adequate sourcing and checking ethical issues. These are all important prerequisites to analyze with staffers before diving into the rest of the story.
3
Clarity and voice
Once the structure and bigger picture of the story is clear, the next objective is to focus on clarity and voice. Making sure that the piece clearly and eloquently explains and voices its story is crucial to maintaining flow and clarity throughout all of our content.
4
Grammar, AP style and punctuation
Once the other steps are complete, the last thing I look for is making sure all AP Style rules are followed and quotes are attributed correctly. This year, a lot of our staffers were less familiar with these unique journalistic rules, and so this step often required more work than in past years.
Leaving Comments
Because I can't always interact with my staffers face to face, learning how to interact though other services was crucial. Here are some examples of comments I left on stories from my staffers using Google Docs.
Design Editing
Editing design was a newer practice for me but one that I learned to master with an understanding of key design elements and an in-depth knowledge of our publication's design style.
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​My main goal was to avoid crowded designs and maintain visual clarity on all of our spreads. I did this by making sure that all of our visual elements, such as graphics and photos, had room around them and followed a clear flow on the page.
Some examples of my editing of design can be seen below.
Rough draft
Final version after edits
This page had a couple issues I worked with the designer on. The first was filling page space. We decided to pull some facts related to the story to create a sidebar for that space. The next editing steps were adding stars from the logo graphic prominent on the spread to help create visual connection between all the different blocks. The final step was coordinating all the colors on the page to create a cohesive vision for the spread
​This page came to me in much better shape, but still could use some edits to help create a more visually appealing spread. The first step was the photos. Having two equally-sized photos was confusing from a visual perspective, so adding a third photo and establishing a clear, dominant photo helped with that clarity. The next step was the sidebar in the bottom right and the pull quote. Making sure they matched the style of the paper and used correct fonts and spacing helped clean up the page. The final step was adding the pink stripe in the back to give it more color that complimented the neon-colored photos.
This spread looked good when it was submitted, but a few key edits helped elevate it to a great finished product. Fixing the cutout backgrounds on the two images helped create a cleaner text wrap and partnered with color correction to really help the photos pop. The next step was making the headline smaller and creating more contrast between the two text styles. This opened up the room to add in some featured quotes which helped give reader's multiple visual entry points to a page.
This graphic was pitched for an editorial about sexual assault movements. It was a tricky assignment because graphically representing an editorial like that can be tough. After the designer submitted his first draft, I worked with him to help create a more clear graphic that helped represent the themes of the story while still maintaining its abstract art style that avoided being overly cartoonish.