editing.
Editing is one of my favorite aspects of student journalism. Last year, while I was the Opinions/A&E section editor, I had the opportunity to watch a story idea blossom from a tiny seedling to a beautiful, well-structured, well-written work. Now, as Editor-in-Chief, my relationship with stories is a bit different because my position consists of an eagle-eye-view, but I still retain the same principle from when I first began my journey as an editor — ensuring that each story I edit is better than when I first saw it. As Editor-in-Chief, I have two editing roles: the first is hands-on editing, or the Managing Editor position; the second is conceptual editing, or the Conceptual Editor position.
staff process.
Since I am Editor-in-Chief of the Pathfinder, it’s fundamental that we maintain a consistent quality in our stories, especially when we are actively competing against other school newspapers to display our competitive, quality stories. However, it’s best to begin our process early on in the year so that writers have an idea of the expectations when things become a bit more hectic.
Each time that a writer has an idea for a story, they will pitch it using our pitch form. The Editors-in-Chief will decide if a story has merit by considering the timeliness of the story, the interest factor of the topic, and a writer’s previous performance.
Timeliness is important, especially in News stories, but there are other factors to consider. For example, if a writer suggested writing a Black History Month feature, but it is the last week of February, it would not be very timely.
In addition, a specific topic of interest is required as well. As a former Opinions editor, it was important to me that there is a specific angle that a story takes; there were many times where I’d have writers who would write a story that would boil down to ”racism is bad” or “climate change is bad.” These are not necessarily bad ideas within themselves, but a story on institutionalized practices that contribute to the unequal treatment of people of color in our schools or Swifties’ denial of Taylor Swift’s environmental impact are more nuanced, less vague story ideas.
Of course, not every story idea has to be as intricate and fleshed out as those; pitches for News stories are often cut and dry, especially for coverage stories. However, we are aware that even outwardly straightforward coverage stories can be filled with human interest and unique angles. Highlighting the personal stories of those affected by an event, or exploring unexpected consequences, can elevate a routine news piece.
Finally, a writer’s previous performance is noted, but it’s not necessarily the defining factor when assigning a story. This is used more to determine if a specific deadline will need to be adjusted as well as how often we should be checking in with a specific writer on the story.
After this assessment, we will assign a story a color. We have three categorizing colors — green means that the pitch has been approved and the EIC may email the writer of their story idea’s approval; yellow means that there needs to be a discussion with the writer about an aspect of the story they pitched; and red means that the pitch was rejected. However, we don’t just leave writers hanging if their pitch is rejected; oftentimes, there will be conversations around how the pitches can be adapted into more viable ideas or suggestions for other stories.
Afterwards, writers will be assigned a story on FLOW, which is the editing/organizational platform that we use. Here, they can upload their story, view their deadlines, and view their editing process.
As we get into the second semester, certain stories — News briefs, particularly, or stories that are created and published within a class period — are assigned to the staff, and it is expected that each writer complete them within the date assigned with the support of our adviser, the EICs, and the section editors.
As a staff, we cover school events — like the annual senior pageant Mr. Longhorn and of course, events like Homecoming and Prom — but we also try to report on and cover more controversial events, like teachers’ reduced plan time or the elimination of study hall at West. I encourage our writers to write a variety of stories and attempt writing sections that they haven’t before to diversify our writers’ portfolios and give the Pathfinder a wide, distinct selection of stories.
As for class organization, I utilize an in-person calendar to schedule stories to ensure that we hold ourselves, as a staff, accountable and publish stories so that our site is constantly updated with refreshed journalism content.
Typically, our writers are independent and are free to work as they please during their hour-and-a-half long class, but I usually start off class time with either "newspaper huddles" or "check-ins." The former is usually on the days where we have longer classes, and we circle around to each newspaper student in the class to find out what they're currently working on, and if they have any questions for staff-wide collaboration. The latter is what I use on Mondays when I'm at school, checking in with each individual student to help them achieve success.
During this time, I regularly invite conversation and discussion with staff members as well as members of the Editorial Board. Because our staff writers often use outside hours to write their stories - though they are absolutely welcome to utilize class time to work on their articles - I encourage debate on current or future storiy ideas as well as goals for collaboration, both within the Pathfinder staff and the entire journalism department.
Though we have an established pitch form, as EICs, we are constantly updating our story idea log with story ideas that staff members are free to use. After realizing that our engagement with the digital story idea log was low, we felt it best to switch over to an in-person story idea log on the whiteboard in the journalism room so that we could actively see who's taking what idea and that the ideas are visible and largely accessible to the rest of the staff.
It’s important to provide our audience with timely, quality stories and as an EIC, it is my duty to guide this process along.
editing process.
As Managing Editor, the topmost student editor in the chain, I have three goals — making sure that an argument is sound, ensuring that there are no glaring errors in information, and making sure that a piece goes beyond the text. I typically edit in three rounds, though that’s subject to change for each story.
First, generally, I review the story to gain an understanding of the story’s structure and organization, creating notes in places where I need to. I also utilize this round of editing to ensure that every hyperlink in the story works and is credible. This round ensures that the basic format of a story is there.
Sometimes, if a story needs considerable improvement, I may not get through this round before returning it back to the story. As an editor, it’s important to me that each story has a clear, set structure or manner of organization, whether that’s an opinion piece, an A&E review, or a feature story.
In my second round of editing, I review word choice, syntax, and clarity. My rule of thumb is that if I can’t understand it, then the audience won’t, either. I also check for AP style and clarity within quotes.
Finally, I review multimedia. Last year, I discovered genial.ly — at least, in the same way that Christopher Columbus discovered America — a website that allows users to embed content into a website, and now, several months later, our staff is practically addicted to it — and for good reason! Users can create slideshows, games, interactive statistics, and all sorts of nifty multimedia tools to add another layer beyond the text.
Before EIC edits
some edits i made:
After EIC edits
Genial.ly began my interactive kick, and I’m still always looking for members of our staff to go beyond the text and spruce up their stories with multimedia elements, whether that’s genial.ly, KnightLab, Thinglink, infographics, or any other tools that can enhance a story and engagement from the reader’s standpoint, which is something I emphasize in my edits. Within this multimedia, I ensure there are no copyright issues and that every element is labeled and captioned properly.
The last thing I do on every story is leave an overall comment. I learned that handy tip from previous EICs; overall notes are a great way to make suggestions for the entire story, especially if there is a persistent struggle with aspects like structure or word choice. Not only is the overall comment used to point out specific issues, but I like to use the overall comment to put some pep in our writer’s steps by using compliments! We consider each of our writers’ persistence and dedication as extremely admirable, and I want to encourage that!
I’m infamous in our circle for hardly sending a story through on the first try, but to that point, I am incredibly thorough in my edits. Balancing quality and timeliness is a skill that took me years to learn — first, with my own stories, and then while managing other people’s stories — but now, I’ve developed the ability to determine what each story needs at a given time.
As A&E and Opinions editor for the 2022-2023 school year, I had 15 stories in my sections that received a Best of SNO. I worked intimately with their authors to cultivate angles and refine story structures. At this point in time, as Editor-in-Chief, our staff has earned 19 Best of SNOs.
In addition, as a Conceptual Editor, it is my responsibility to review and schedule stories that have gone through the editing process. Once again, I check to make sure that every hyperlink works and is factual to each story, and then I preview the story to make sure that the placement of the multimedia is correct.
