Journalism Portfolio Winter, 2015
Ashton Seep, Copy Editor
Self Evaluation This has been the first semester in which I’ve held a leadership position on the staff as the Copy Editor. Granted, I don’t have much control over the staff, but I still have expectations for them to listen to. So far, everyone has generally been receptive towards my criticism, but I know there have been people who were not pleased with the way I doled it out. I’ve been told that I need to tone myself down a little, or run the risk of alienating myself from the staff, but it’s hard for me to be able to accept the quality of the work I’ve had to review; if I need to say something, then I will. In terms of my responsibilities as Copy Editor, I’m learning and relearning every day. The rules of grammar are specific, so it’s
sometimes hard to memorize it all, but I’m managing to stay on top of it. I have made several mistakes, which were caught by others, but that just means I have more to learn. My only saving grace is that I’m very picky about what I read; if there are mistakes in it, I catch them immediately. That generally poses a problem, because I then get myself upset over it, which is probably unnecessary. Still, a grammar editor should have the ability to recognize and correct mistakes, which I have in spades.
Reflection 1 I feel as though my main contribution to the publication, which is also my main role, is the editing I do for each and every spread that we send to Herff Jones. It’s an important role for any journalistic company; if your articles look terrible or are hard to read, how can you get your messages across to the public? It’s not an easy job either; mistakes are hard to see, sometimes, so it can pass right by your eyes without you noticing a thing. That’s why the system we had last year, where 10 people had to
check over each page before we would begin correcting it, was such a good one. It ensured as little mistakes as possible. Even then, there are those obscure rules or miniscule mistakes that no one can pick up on, even me, so I’m constantly learning about grammar, both journalistic and not.
Reflection 2 I think my biggest challenge this year is dealing with all of the work I have to take care of. We haven’t gotten an efficient system, yet, for the pages I need to edit, so there’s a sudden mad rush right at the end to take care of everything before we submit all the pages. The first deadline wasn’t as hectic, since there were only two or three full spreads, so it was a bit of a shock to come into the second deadline with such a workload. Luckily, we have staff members assisting me with the editing process, so that
takes some of the load off of my back. I don’t expect them to find most of the problems, however, so I’m not really sure if it’s really all that convenient. Regardless, I have a lot of things I need to take care of, and I have very little time to do it... and I have no idea how I’m going to finish it all.
Reflection 4 I feel that one of the biggest ways I’ve contributed to the staff is that I am slowly, but surely, teaching them proper grammar. While I have heard several complaints about the way I dole out criticism, I am teaching them as I do it, whether they like it or not. Even at the beginning of the year, I had a full presentation on the rules of journalistic writing (even though Mr. Adamson ended up doing the same thing within the week). So, whenever I go and talk to people about the stories they submitted to me (and the mistakes I found
within said story), I am actually trying to help them. They may not like it, they may not accept it, but they will listen to me, and they’ll learn what they need to if they don’t want me to get mad at them again.
Reflection 5 One of the biggest issues I have to deal with is the ‘mean’ way I’m talking to the staff about their work. Apparently, I’m not being sympathetic enough to the others, and I’ll tell them that they made mistakes in a really rude way. Well, unfortunately for them, I don’t care what they think. We are a professional publication, which means we have to act like we are professional. If any one of them submitted one of their stories to any other publication in the world, they’d almost certainly be fired on the spot. I have a standards, and I don’t think I’m in the wrong to expect the staff to meet those standards. Whether they took Yearbook because they thought it was an easy credit or
not, if they can’t handle critique then they shouldn’t be in the class. The only problem, however, is that I’m still unsure of myself. I’m not sure if I’m correct when i fix mistakes or let people know what they did wrong. I want to be able to get the point across, but I stumble across my words and end up making myself feel foolish. I want to be sure, though; I want to know that I’m in the right, and that I can tell people what they need to fix. It’s a process, though, so I’ll work on it when i can.