EDITING
Over the years, having walked the shoes of both a reporter and an editor, I’ve learned that the editing process is a team effort, one that is undertaken as carefully by the section editor as an editor-in-chief. Slowly, though, through asking questions and consistent practice, I began to find my footing, noticing both AP style errors to fact-checking to diversity in sourcing.
Editing Process
Editing occurs so that the quality of our product is at a level that allows it to become publishable. In our news site’s procedure, the editing process begins with the section editor, then gets passed on to their managing editor, then the editor-in-chief. I noticed a lack of efficiency in the editing process, where edits were slowing down the turnaround time of uploading an article because editors didn’t know whether or when a previous editor had given edits. Many times, there would just be one round of edits, resulting in more and more stylistic and content errors that undermined the quality and credibility of our site.
Over the summer, I proposed the plan of implementing an editing signature at the top of our articles. See below for reference.
Music Monday
Since October 2020, Aquila has released a specifically themed playlist of seven songs each Monday, with each song corresponding to one day of the week. Ranging from school topics to politics and national news, the intention was to provide a sense of connection within the community and an interactive and enjoyable element to the site. Especially when we hear positive feedback from the community, it puts a smile on my face knowing that these song curations, which have expanded to being written by multiple people on staff, provide some sort of entertainment for others.
These are all the playlists curated for Aquila’s Music Mondays, which I then communicate to our social media editor to upload to the Instagram.
Book Corner
During remote learning, many in our community turned towards reading as a form of escapism or passing free time. Therefore, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work closely with my adviser Ms. Austin, one of our upper school librarians Ms. Pelman, the features editors, and Aquila strategic to introduce literary content to the A&E section. Book Corner allowed us as students to expand intellectually while simultaneously provide our community with reading inspiration and consistent content.
This is the Book Corner editing/uploading calendar that helps keep me organized for updating book reviews, loosely based on an HoH calendar I first saw in freshman year.
Dance Show, Spring Musical
With the vaccination and a slowly reopening campus, the sorely missed community of performing arts also returned. For both the Spring Musical and the Dance Show, I worked closely with Aquila strategic to create a comprehensive, cross-publication plan of coverage, documenting the moments that singers, dancers, and actors could finally meet again on the physical stage. I learned firsthand how to stay organized in planning, as well as include forms of multimedia elements to honor the perseverance and dedication of the performing arts community and their impact on our school.
I thought it would be important to include the voice of the costume designer for the Spring Musical, who has been an integral member of the staff for 12 years.
Editing Multimedia
“Talk Around Campus” feature video on Thanksgiving meals
Below are my edits for a feature video produced by two members of my staff as an effort to increase multimedia elements on our site this year. Since both members were relatively new to working with multimedia gear and editing videos, I wanted to provide positive but also constructive feedback so that they could integrate these skills into future video projects and inspire others on staff with this multimedia initiative. See the first draft and the final video below the edits.
The edits I gave to the reporters working on this video.