Copy Editor

As mentioned in the opening letter, I am Chief Copy Editor for Elon News Network, my school’s student media program. I am not only in charge of helping edit content for The Pendulum, ENN’s weekly newspaper, and the website, but I am also responsible for managing a group of copy editors. Although my job is mainly managerial, I am able to help out often with editing any articles that ENN publishes. Some of these articles are sports related, lifestyle, news, opinion-based, etc. I have really enjoyed copy editing, as I believe it has made me a much improved writer. I have included three examples of articles that I have helped edit: a sports article, a lifestyle article, and a news article.

https://outdooreducation.blog/2019/11/25/enn-sports-article/

NOTE: The purple marks are my edits and the green edits are the author’s.

This is an example of an article I helped edit for the sports section of our newspaper. This student wrote a profile on the newly hired Elon University’s men’s basketball coach, Mike Schrage. While I did not make a large number of edits, I helped Caitlin, the author, reword certain sections that didn’t read clearly as well as credit references to the coach when applicable. I made sure to make clarity a priority when editing. For example, Caitlin mentions that Schrage’s history of winning pushed him to want to coach a school like Elon. I added a part at the end that mentions the fact that the school has never even made an appearance in the tournament, to help the audience understand the context of his quote. I also added phrases such as “Schrage said” or “According to Schrage” to help the audience decipher between Caitlin’s writing and Schrage’s own words. Although Caitlin is only a freshman, she has written many articles for ENN, and therefore I didn’t need to help her as much with overall content as I did with grammar, syntax, AP style changes, etc. This article was written for the basketball season preview newspaper, to help our audience, the Elon University and town of Elon communities, get to know Schrage’s background and coaching style prior to the season.

https://outdooreducation.blog/2019/11/25/enn-lifestyle-article/

NOTE: The orange marks are my edits, the green are the author’s, and the purple is another editor’s.

This story details the owner of a hot dog cart that temporarily sets up in the town of Elon on a weekly basis. This was the reporter, Carrie’s, first article for ENN. As a result, I made many more edits to her story than I did to Caitlin’s. I helped Carrie flesh out her story and make it more detail-laden. I wanted to make sure she captured the real story behind the article: which was about the owner creating the business so he could run it with his sons, which is why he named the cart “Father and Son.” Details are crucial for a food related article — we always want to be factual but also descriptive and give our audience a sense of familiarity with the subject they’re reading, so that they feel that they’re actually doing or experiencing what the story is about. For example, I added the section about the hot dog cart owner starting the company in NYC, which contextualizes the story. I also made edits to this article for AP style consistencies, grammar, syntax, etc. The purpose was to inform the community about a new and interesting vendor in the town and why he decided to start his own business. The audience is Elon University as well as the town of Elon’s communities.

https://outdooreducation.blog/2019/11/25/enn-news-article/

NOTE: The orange marks are my edits and the green ones are the author’s.

Unlike Carrie the previous reporter, Mackenzie, the author of this article, is a sophomore and has experience reporting for ENN. Mackenzie’s area of specialty is politics and she wrote a piece about the election of a new town manager for Elon. This article was written to keep the audience, Elon University as well as the town of Elon, informed on local politics. My main focus was to help Mackenzie condense information and make it as readable as possible, since we try and write for our readers as clearly as possible. One example where I enhanced the readability was in sixth paragraph where the author talks about the interim town manager. He compared the town to a corporation, the Board of Aldermen to a board of directors, and the town manager to a CEO. I discussed deleting this section of the article with Mackenzie, since I felt it was excess information and didn’t pertain to the main story of choosing the next town manager. She agreed, and by taking it out, we were able to make the article more concise and less cluttered with unnecessary information. We want our stories to be understandable, so I helped Mackenzie improve her clarity, grammar, structuring, etc.

I have worked for ENN for a year now. In that time, I’ve been able to learn much about journalism and how to serve the public and relay information. Most importantly, I’ve learned how to collaborate with others and help accomplish a common goal, all the while improving my own writing and editing skills. ENN has afforded me the opportunity to grow not only as a writer but also as a leader.