Editing, Leadership, and
Team Building
Editing - before and after
News Brief
Highlights:
- Working to help new writers learn AP style rules
- Focuses on the nut graf
- Considers the difference between information in quotes versus information in transitions
(This article was published to thecougarstar.com)
The button to the left is the original brief.
This article was a smaller brief but was still important news to the community. With newer writers, I avoid using suggestions as when they implement the changes themselves, they are more likely to remember the rules. Good reporting is the basis is the basis for a good article so I encouraged this writer to do additional supplementary reporting.
In-depth feature
Highlights:
- Focuses around what is most interesting to the readers
- In-depth transitions add important information for the reader (accessible to everyone in the community)
- Adding a diverse range of perspectives
The button to the left is the original story with my comments. (please do not edit anything!)
I really liked this article because it included a variety of perspectives on the subject. What I wanted the writer to work on was being more clear with statements and expanding transitions to be more than "they agree/disagree..." As I and the other editors knew about this subject already, we also made sure that all of the facts were accurate and representative.
Physical editing
This year, I have only been doing physical editing on yearbook proofs. To the right is an example of my edits. I focus on copy editing, color choice, and layout. My adviser and I live walking distance from each other so I often go to pick up proofs.
To the left is former Emery EIC Julie Heng and I working on copy edits. We still do group copy edit sessions this year, it is just on a zoom call.
Reworking the old - my first article
As this is my first published article, I am always going to appreciate what it represents: my start in journalism. The article overall is a decent feature that showcases a few different aspects of Mrs. James. However, here are my edits (numbers on pdf correspond to the edits):
1. In the first quote, Mrs. James says that she thought she was going to be a teacher for 30 years, I then added that same idea a second time in the quote. Very redundant.
2. In the third paragraph, I never explained the Middle Years Program. Most students at Huron (the primary audience) would not know what that is and they will not completely understand what her job consisted of. I also never mentioned the name of her college institution.
3. I would have moved the information in the seventh paragraph to the fifth paragraph to give context earlier as to why she left her previous job.
4. In the ninth paragraph I am redundant again, the DP is an IB program so no need to state both. Additionally, it might be important to go into what the DP versus CP is.
5. In the ninth paragraph James says, "Choosing the IB program is a choice," of course that is a choice, there is no reason for the inclusion of this sentence.
6. Overall, I do not go into depth enough about the programs she is building which would be the most important part. What is done is done but I am glad I can critique myself to learn for the future.
Leaders build leaders
This is me working with the Cougar Star newspaper students. In this picture I am showing the students how to change the color of an object in Indesign. I had taken over about ten minutes before because OC's wifi cut out but the club needed to go on. I genuinely kept talking for another 10-20 minutes because I did not realize she had come back. This is not the only time I have taken over the Cougar Star newspaper/yearbook instruction time and while I do not always know the entire lesson plan, I have worked with journalism and Indesign for long enough that I can try.
GroupMe was our main form of communication with the entire newspaper staff during the 2019-2020 school year. I tried to be very active in the chat to build relationships with the staffers and remind people of upcoming deadlines. It was very hard for me at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year to talk to the students who were older than me because I was intimidated. With time I was able to direct everyone which hopefully set an example for the other editors. Seniority in age does not equal seniority in our staff so teaching/encouraging the younger editors will help the newspaper team and help them within other organizations. I just want to mention that we as a staff love The Communicator, a news magazine from a sister school. We would create a sense of competition for fun but ultimately we made it clear that we are not rivals, we are colleagues.
Over the course of a week during the summer, The Emery's editorial board held a editor boot camp for the newspaper and yearbook editors. The editors would play a team bonding game, watch a 30 minute lesson and then do an assignment. To the left is my presentation on Indesign. As we had a range of skill levels, I created two videos to be shown depending on the editor. I also did a similar lesson in the Newspaper class where I recorded a new video on Indesign basics that we went through over the course of two class periods. I am not sure where this name came from but my adviser has called me the "Indesign queen" and so I usually teach the Indesign lessons or am tasked with helping journalists through learning the platform.
On the second/third slides, click on the pictures to watch the videos I made for bootcamp. (Everything used for educational purposes)
"Go team!"
"Go team!" is how my adviser Sara-Beth Badalamente ends most of her instructions/meetings. Many of the editors (including me) have also started using this phrase. As a leader, it is my job to make sure that every team member is heard and is accounted for. Additionally, I try to give as many opportunities to the other staffers as possible to grow their experience while still hopefully enjoying their time on staff.
Julie Heng taught me that team-building is all about making connections. In a virtual environment making connections is definitely harder but I work to make myself available. Examples of this include looking over interview questions beforehand for journalists and giving them feedback on their ideas, meeting with them to talk about design concepts, and also keeping them updated on the designing/editing/writing process. Having open communication is the only way a good team is going to function and so I openly give my email/phone number to accommodate everyone.
Working under Julie Heng and Sami Ruud as newspaper EICs has taught me a lot. One thing I especially admired is their attention to detail within the newspaper staff manual. They did not write the entire manual but they reworked most of it. I realized that the yearbook does not have a staff manual. I do not think that we can be effective leaders without creating a set of goals and rules to abide by, so, I made a staff manual in collaboration with Garrett. I drafted most of it and made it very clear that future editors are meant to change whatever they need to. I will probably be adding to the staff manual later anyways. Overall, I hope that the yearbook classes can incorporate the manual more, just as we do in newspaper.