The Blaze Copy Editor | 2025 WI Student Journalist of the Year
Editing, Leadership and Team Building
photo by Alexander Walentowski
As an editor, I understand that my responsibilities include teaching our staff, leading them in the right direction, and bonding with them along the way. Although my position comes with many other tasks, I believe that these are crucial to producing a good yearbook. I remember when I first joined the staff, I only knew a few people. I was nervous and extremely introverted. I never want anyone to be afraid to voice their opinions or ask me questions. That's why this year, I tried my hardest to create an environment that made everyone feel welcome and excited to be with the Blaze.
I feel like it's my job to teach our staff instead of do the work for them. Although sometimes it's tempting to take the computer and start writing, I remember that I was once in their shoes and that it never benefitted me when my work was done for me. Being copy editor has taught me a few different things, but the biggest lesson is that nothing is going to be perfect the first time around, and we have to be OK with that.
​
Each year, my adviser and I change our idea of how we want stories to be edited. This year, we chose to make a "First Draft" folder, a "Second Draft" folder, and a "Final Draft" folder for the staff to move their stories into after each round of edits. This helps us stay on track and keep everything organized. Also, with each story that I edit, I like to leave a closing remark reminding the staff how proud I am and how great their story is. I think giving them little bits of encouragement will really help them improve over the course of the year. As a class that meets everyday, sometimes it's easier to talk to my staff in person to make live edits with them.
Editing
The Editing Process
Our staff has work nights on the due date of each deadline. These nights are so important for not only completing and submitting pages, but also for bonding. During these hours, I become the most productive version of myself possible. I make stops at each table group every hour or two to check up on my staff and see where they're at.
Here's what the weeks leading up to our deadline look like.
After the first draft is completed, I make my edits with the commenting tool on Google Docs. Then the staff is expected to make a copy with all of my comments and fix the suggestions. It then gets sent back to me for another round of editing.
This is round two of edits. Usually this is when I'm nitpicking and fine-tuning everything. Grammar and spelling become extremely important in this stage of writing, so that's what I mainly check for in the second drafts.
Here is how we stay organized throughout this process.
Every year, our adviser creates a "Resources Folder" for us to add to throughout the school year. We've added things from last year, ideas from the internet, tips and tricks from Walsworth, and a lot more. This is a folder that I check and add to very often.
This is our Cross Country story after it's first round of edits.
This is a copy of the first draft after the edits have been made. The writer and I met in person to discuss her next steps toward the Final Draft.
This is the finished version of the story and the one that went into the book.
This is our Cross Country story after it's first round of edits.
Here is an example of a story from the beginning to end of the editing process.
This year, the editors and our adviser were mainly focused on keeping everything organized so that we didn't fall behind on anything. During our camp in the summer, I chose to redesign our Deadline Checklist and made it easier for our staff to understand. This checklist comes in handy towards the end of each deadline.
During my first year on staff, I was noticing that everyone was making a lot of the same mistakes even after we had gone over and discussed how to make changes. In the middle of the year, I created this slideshow as a way to reteach and show what I was looking for. I put this in our resources folder.
Scroll through to see what I thought was most important for my staff to remember.
Leadership
In the Blaze staff, being an editor is holding a leadership position. For me, leadership is all about directing the younger, newer reporters and pushing them in the right direction. During our summer camp, I presented a few different lessons to help people grasp what exactly they would be doing when the school year started. I also made ice breaker ideas for everyone to get to know each other. The camp was mainly student-led by the editors.
Scroll through to see the agenda Mrs. Corbett and the editors created for our summer camp.
These were my ice breaker ideas for the first day of camp. I would say they were very successful in helping everyone get to know each other before school started.
Team Building
At the end of each year, instead of looking at unfamiliar faces, I find myself looking at family. Through the most stressful parts of making the book, to lazy days when we don't have much to do, we are always there for each other. Our team is what gives us a good product at the end of each year, and without our bond, the book would never be able to come together as well as it does each time.
Juliana, Mrs. Corbett, and I all arrived at the school before the rest of the staff to get some work done.
After a long work night, the editors took a group picture.
The editors and Mrs. Corbett all made edits on stories.
Juliana, Mrs. Corbett, and I all arrived at the school before the rest of the staff to get some work done.
Scroll through to see pictures of the awesome staff we have!