There are many struggles that have come along with editing my peers' work for this class. When someone submits an article or story that is either too long, too short, doesn't have a correlating photograph or just choppy stories in general, it makes it a lot harder to edit them to what I believe is correct.
Whenever I read over a story to make initial edits to it, I always try to keep in mind that not everyone in the class is a journalist or a journalism major and that we all have different levels of writing skill. Some of the stories that I had read and edited were choppy and to the point and did not include much detail, and others included too many descriptives and weren't to the point enough. I never know what to cut out and what to keep in the stories though because the author is never usually around whenever that portion of the editing process occurs, so it makes it a little more difficult to convey what the author really means.
Honestly, a lot of the editing could be prevented if the author simply read over their work once more before submitting it. If it sounds like you are reading it to a third grader whenever you read over it again, that's probably when you should sit down and change some of the word choices. Another thing that is frustrating to edit is taking out all of the obvious and not so obvious cliches that are frequently used. Of all of the different types of articles that we had to choose from, the one that stuck out to me the most was the scholarly because it is not very similar to the opinion or the first person narrative. The audience that was covered over all three of these choices was not very similar.
Another thing that goes into the editing process that I feel can be even more frustrating than the actual writing is the photo aspect of it. A good photo is important to the story because it illustrates what the author's point really is. If you don't have a good photograph to use, the layout will look crappy in print.
A lot of the pictures that I was editing were either too small, too pixelated, too blurry or they just simply didn't make much sense and didn't complement the story that they were about. It is also important to always note the source in which you are getting the photograph from so you can properly credit the source.
If there isn't a good photograph pr headline to go along with the story, it won't appeal to the reader and there is a chance that even an amazing, detailed story won't be acknowledged. Also, headlines may be one of the most important parts of the layout because the headline will either draw the reader in or cause them to turn the page.
I'm not really sure how I feel about the editing process because it seems like there is a lot more technicalities that go into making the story to the point. I think what I really love to do is write, and even then the editing process could be frustrating because the editor has the last say on what portion of your story goes to print. If it's not the same thing as what you wrote originally, it's almost like a slap in the face to you. I think I'll stick to writing and getting the story covered and leave the nitty gritty to the editors.
Whenever I read over a story to make initial edits to it, I always try to keep in mind that not everyone in the class is a journalist or a journalism major and that we all have different levels of writing skill. Some of the stories that I had read and edited were choppy and to the point and did not include much detail, and others included too many descriptives and weren't to the point enough. I never know what to cut out and what to keep in the stories though because the author is never usually around whenever that portion of the editing process occurs, so it makes it a little more difficult to convey what the author really means.
Honestly, a lot of the editing could be prevented if the author simply read over their work once more before submitting it. If it sounds like you are reading it to a third grader whenever you read over it again, that's probably when you should sit down and change some of the word choices. Another thing that is frustrating to edit is taking out all of the obvious and not so obvious cliches that are frequently used. Of all of the different types of articles that we had to choose from, the one that stuck out to me the most was the scholarly because it is not very similar to the opinion or the first person narrative. The audience that was covered over all three of these choices was not very similar.
Another thing that goes into the editing process that I feel can be even more frustrating than the actual writing is the photo aspect of it. A good photo is important to the story because it illustrates what the author's point really is. If you don't have a good photograph to use, the layout will look crappy in print.
A lot of the pictures that I was editing were either too small, too pixelated, too blurry or they just simply didn't make much sense and didn't complement the story that they were about. It is also important to always note the source in which you are getting the photograph from so you can properly credit the source.
If there isn't a good photograph pr headline to go along with the story, it won't appeal to the reader and there is a chance that even an amazing, detailed story won't be acknowledged. Also, headlines may be one of the most important parts of the layout because the headline will either draw the reader in or cause them to turn the page.
I'm not really sure how I feel about the editing process because it seems like there is a lot more technicalities that go into making the story to the point. I think what I really love to do is write, and even then the editing process could be frustrating because the editor has the last say on what portion of your story goes to print. If it's not the same thing as what you wrote originally, it's almost like a slap in the face to you. I think I'll stick to writing and getting the story covered and leave the nitty gritty to the editors.
