As the print editor-in-chief it is my job, in collaboration with our leadership team to conduct multiple rounds of edits on our print stories to ensure they are ready to represent the quality of work we hold ourselves to at the dispatch.

Though our leadership team all follow the AP style guide for editing stories; structure, punctuation, and capitalization, we all have our own unique editing styles.

It took me a while to find an editing process that I found most effective for me, and the writers of the story. I didn’t just want to correct mistakes I wanted to teach staffers how to improve. This is the process I developed:

1. Before making hard AP style edits, I take a look at sentence structure and overall structure of the story.

   • Does this story have a clear subject, and does it develop the subject well?

   • If a news story, does it contain bias?

   • If a subjective story, do we have data backing our claims? and is it cited correctly?

   2. Then, I give suggestions on the flow and clarity of sentences and how to make the story more compelling.

   • a lot of the time when I’m editing the story this is when I will want to actually go and talk to the story writer in class to work with them on how to elevate their story

   3. Finally, I’ll do my final round of edits making AP style corrections to ensure the story is ready to go on a page.

While editing, I’ve found sometimes the most effective way to help our staff improve their writing is to do in-person edits, to sit down and actually talk to the writer about things they are doing effectively and things they can work on. I know it’s not like this in a more professional environment, but we are student journalist, and as a leader I think it’s important for me to be the best mentor and teacher I can.