Editing, Leadership, and Team Building
When I first started writing for my school's newspaper it took me a while to catch on to how journalistic writing is different from academic beyond confused as to how to decide what to write about. With our meetings being over Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was difficult for me to ask questions and communicate with other staff members between our staff even more difficult.
However, as time went on, I began to open up to the upperclassmen and take in their feedback. I started reading the news more and got a sense of how to come up with newsworthy story ideas. I also got used to seeing 30+ comments on what I thought was a near-perfect article. Over time, I developed these skills myself. Finding myself helping the new underclassmen improve their own writing skills. However, I noticed that simply commenting and making changes was not going to be enough. For this reason, I decided to implement a summer writing workshop to help teach incoming freshmen and underclassmen about journalism and help them throughout the process of writing. I reached out to our local middle school and several teachers to encourage students to join. In the end, several students were active in the program, and five students had their work published on our website within the first month of school, which gave us an advantageous headstart to the new school year. As the school year started, I was also diligent about encouraging writers and editors to meet in person so that they could talk through suggestions and questions. I also continued to present mini-lessons about writing and journalism during our weekly meetings. I made sure to address the needs of our writers and editors by being steadfast about communication and sending check-in forms at the end of each term. As a result of my work, I have increased student engagement in the Spartan Banner, student enthusiasm, and the number of stories published on our website.
Here is an example of a slideshow I presented after I sent out the Term One check-in. Below is a slideshow I used for the summer camp and lessons during the school year. All the resources I curated are available to our staff through our shared Google Drive.
When editing stories, I make sure to add a variety of comments. I check for grammar and spelling mistakes, logical fallacies, cohesiveness, accuracy, and organization. I also leave one longer comment at the top of the story that summarizes my feedback and highlights the article's strengths and weaknesses to provide the writer with a better understanding of how to move forward. To ensure that our editors take a holistic approach to editing, I also created an editing checklist in our shared Google Drive.
Editors Checklist SB.pdfEditingEvidence.png
Term1Checkin.pngIn addition to being the online editor-in-chief, I am also in charge of communications. I email students about upcoming meetings, magazine deadlines publication dates, and story deadlines. I also communicate with students one-on-one about any questions or concerns they have about their work or their attendance. I understand that sometimes students are unable to attend meetings, so I make myself available to set up separate meeting times with individuals who find themselves in this situation. I have found that being flexible and listening to the needs of students in Spartan Banner is crucial for increasing engagement.
I use a Google document story tracker to keep track of articles in each stage including brainstorming, researching, writing, and editing. This system ensures that I can plan for the weeks ahead, and ensure consistency in when we post new articles. Additionally, it makes the process of assigning editors and photographers more straightforward.
This is a photo of some of the members of Spartan Banner and me when we visited Pilgrim Park Middle School. Leading Spartan Banner means being a member of a close-knit community. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with other Spartan Banner members during these past four years and look forward to working with more student journalists in college.