Editing Process
Editing hasn't always been intuitive for me. I know what a story should look like, but getting turning that concept into tangible edits is where I struggle. However, the five-step process below has helped me streamline my process to not just edit staffers' work, but help coach them to fix common errors.
01.
Read through
Should I even be editing?
02.
Big-picture
Can I find the story?
03.
Medium-size
How is the flow?
04.
Small-scale
Is everything clear?
05.
Conferencing​
What does the writer need?
Read-through
This is something I haven't always done, even though leaders on staff have always preached its benefits. Before I even touch my keyboard, I like to read the story, which does three things for me. Firstly, it gives me a sense of comprehension, which helps when giving suggestions to writers. Secondly, this helps me think like a reader -- I'll miss big edits when I only have my editor's cap on. Finally, this helps me answer a crucial question: do I need to read on? If the story is clearly not up to standard, this allows me to have a conversation with the writer about their process rather than trying to fix a broken story.
Above: The photo shows me looking at my laptop during an ODYSSEY press conference, reading through staffers questions before they're asked to determine their efficacy.
Big-picture edits
Of all the steps of my editing process, this has been one that I most often struggle with. Historically, I've been so eager to dive in and start fixing the piece that I miss larger, holistic concerns with the piece. To remedy this, I use my first read-through to gather big-picture ideas about the piece -- is it too long? Will the reader understand the story? Did the author do their due diligence? All of these are questions I attempt to answer before moving on to the next round of editing.
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Above: The left photos show examples of big-picture edits I've left on various pieces, while the right photo shows me communicating with a staffer who I wanted to have a conversation, rather than an editing conference, with.
Medium-size edits
Flow, flow, flow. When I think about medium-size edits, I'm thinking in terms of the way quote- transition blocks fit together in the story. I'm less worried about the actual words and moreso thinking about the general idea of each paragraph and whether these form a cohesive and compelling narrative. This is the domain that I feel really makes or breaks a story -- if a story flows together well, then the details inside each transition are fixable.
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Above: The photos show edits I've left on stories that focus on flow and paragraph blocks with an aim to improve cohesion of ideas.
Smale-scale edits
My bread and butter when it comes to editing is the small scale, sentence or even clause-sized edits. In this go around, I think about each individual clause and whether the words make sense in that order. If I, an editor who has read the piece at least three times, have any uncertainty about what the author means, an edit needs to be made. This is also the place where I will make edits relating to AP or ODYSSEY Style, to which all our stories must adhere.
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Above: The photos show small-scale edits I've left on a variety of different stories.
Editing Conference
All that is well and good, but after three rounds of actual editing, there's often upwards of 30 edits on the Google Document, which is overwhelming to the writer. As an editor, it's my job to synthesize these edits into cohesive boxes that a writer won't just fix, but learn from -- something I haven't always done well. As early as this year, I was told that my editing conferences were confusing and left the staffer unclear. To remedy this, I've started writing a little summary of my edits at the top of every document, focusing on the main ideas I need the author to fix. Additionally, when a story is particularly troublesome, I'll write cliff notes for myself about what needs to change so I have something tangible to speak on in the conference.
Featured: The top photo shows an editing conference I held with another staffer on a social media caption, while the bottom photos show examples of the overarching themes and cliff notes I write myself to guide my editing conferences.
What (and When) Do I Edit?
As the OMG's programmatic Editor-in-Chief, almost every story published on the website or in the magazine will pass through me once, if not multiple times. My level of involvement on each type of story differs, but as EIC, I feel it's my responsibility to ensure quality content across all of our platforms.
Newsmagazine (Middle Draft)
I edit Newsmagazine stories for the first time at a middle draft phase. Here, I'm looking for the big picture concerns. If a quote or two is missing or some information has yet to be gathered, I can live with that, but if the writer lacks direction in their story, I use this check-in to intervene. If anything seems out of place, or the story doesn't seem to be compelling, I also note that at this stage.
Newsmagazine (Copy Edits)
At the copy editing stage, stories with larger concerns will already have been cut, meaning I can focus on minutia -- wording, grammar, and typos. Typically, I like to edit these stories within their layouts, which also allows me to catch any design formatting errors such as widows and orphans.
Menus
A menu is ODYSSEY slang for a monthly choice story, which ultimately means I could be editing any one of a number of things, including a satire, editorial, breaking news, game coverage, trivia, and more. Because the format varies so much, I don't have a surefire editing philosophy for menus; however, I always ground my editing for these in ensuring factual reporting. Especially in pieces like hot topics, editorials, and trivia where information is sourced from the web, it's important to have reputable sources and to convey those sources' conclusions accurately.
Newsmagazine (Final Draft)
I expect all elements of a story to be complete at final draft phase, where I go hardest on a story. I conceptualize this stage of editing like this: I'm holding the story up to the light to see if any holes shine through. If I see anything issue, I comment on it for the writer to fix. By now, I should see no big-picture problems with a story -- if I do, then I may need to cut it from the magazine.
Beats
I'm usually the last eyes on beats, which are short, 300-word, quote-transition-quote stories that focus on an area of the school community. Previous editors should have caught any larger concerns, but I still do a read-through in case someone missed something. If that passes muster, then I look for wording, details, or anything that isn't verifiable fact. A particular thing I look out for is repetitive quotes and transitions -- our writers struggle to report in their writing, so I ensure they're forced to.
Multimedia Packages
There's no defined schedule for multimedia packages, but when one is created, it's an all hands on deck affair. I prefer to edit these on the Smartboard, dictating my edits to the Digital Editor so she can fix in real time. Because coding is so technical, design edits are easier to explain in real time, while editing copy is difficult for me in WordPress. The editing process for these packages is the most arduous, but the rewards are the greatest.
Teaching Writing
In the second semester of my senior year of high school, I've looked to pass the torch. My firm belief about editing is that the first, most important step is actually pre-emptive: if I can teach people to write at a high level, then the editing will lessen. As such, I've created writing workshop presentations to pass on my expertise to future generations.
Of any presentation I've designed, my writer's workshop presentations have been a passion process. I wanted a way to teach writing in a way that wouldn't feel boring or intangible. Surveying staffers at the start of the spring semester, I ascertained that short, 10-15 minute presentations with video and examples would work best.
Taking advice from books that have brought me personal inspiration like Telling True Stories and On Writing Well, I've created more digestible lessons for staffers. I sync these up with what we're doing at that time of the class -- for example, the first two mini-lessons about story selection took place during our story brainstorming and pitch assignment.
Learning and Implementing
As the OMG's programmatic Editor-in-Chief, almost every story published on the website or in the magazine will pass through me once, if not multiple times. My level of involvement on each type of story differs, but as EIC, I feel it's my responsibility to ensure quality content across all of our platforms.
Editing Notes
In Journalism I, there were no designated editors among the freshman class, but I still got opportunities to learn about how to edit. These notes were my introduction to the practice of editing. From then on, even in my English classes, I was a more confident peer editor as I began to truly think like a reader and see the bigger picture of a story.
Break With a Pro
At the 2023 National High School Journalism Convention in Boston, I attended a Break with a Pro with a professional copy editor working at a Boston university. She gave a very modern take on copy editing, encouraging me to explore the implications of Artificial Intelligence for copy editing. However, she balanced this advice to automate with a very human perspective, cautioning us to avoid rewriting and ensure changes we made allowed the author's voice to nonetheless shine through.
Establishing Editing Workflow
In the 2023-24 school year, I worked with then-Editor-in-Chief Molly Harwell to establish an editing workflow for the staff. In the 2022-23 school year, our writing was plagued by something I called "story purgatory" -- whereby an article would be bounced around between editors in no clear path to publication until it was no longer timely. This workflow meant to organize that process more coherently and create a system for editing that streamlined stories path to publication.