In my role as Editor-in-Chief, I am ultimately responsible for the content published by the Crossed Sabres. Both our print and online news cycles allow for plenty of edits and revision to stories over the course of several weeks. On the first draft deadline, I split the drafts amongst the other members of the Editorial Board for initial edits. I edit all the second drafts, and third drafts go to our adviser for a last look over and any suggestions.
I first started editing stories for the newspaper during the final print cycle of my freshman year when I was named Lifestyles Editor. Since then, I’ve learned how to better provide feedback to the other members of the staff by talking with them about their stories and edits, as well as thinking more critically about the feedback I receive on my own stories.
When I do story edits, the first thing I do is print out the draft. Some of our editors like to make their edits through the suggestion tool on Google Docs, but I prefer to work on paper. I’ll then read the story once without writing any notes before going back through it and writing down my edits. They tend to be more brief, and when I pass the edited drafts back to the staff the following class, I’ll take some time to talk to each person about what I thought they did well and explain the edits I made. That entire class period is always dedicated to making the edits, so I make sure to be available for the staff to ask any questions they have.
These are some edits I did on a feature written by one of my editors about a teacher at our school. One thing I noticed right away is that she’d gotten some great quotes, which was the first thing I told her when I passed back her edits.
This story was written by one of our newer staff members about the use of social media by students and staff at the school. Even before making the edits, it was a great story, and we later decided to make it one of two stories on the front page of our February print issue.
