Editing for The Dartmouth
For the past two years, I have been a sports writer for The Dartmouth, our campus newspaper. This summer, I was promoted to sports editor, which has been a new exciting role!
The Dartmouth is a well-respected newspaper that publishes stories every day and produces a paper copy once a week. Each section of the newspaper publishes on different days, and sports publishes on Thursdays and Sundays.
Every week, the sports section publishes anywhere from one to five articles, covering a variety of sports news at Dartmouth and nationally.
As a writer, my role was to cover a story offered to me, interview coaches and players, and submit my finished story to the sports editors.
Now that I'm on the other side of newspaper production, I have learned quite a lot! As an editor, I select the stories that writers will cover. For example, I have two friends on the Dartmouth heavyweight rowing team who told me they are competing in a worldwide competition. I decided that was a great story and assigned it to a writer.
Once I receive a story from the writer, it undergoes many rounds of revisions. First, I fact-check the article to ensure that all information is correct. I then look for grammar and spelling errors. I pass my edited version back and forth to the executive editors until we have a finished copy we are all happy with.
Editing can be a big time commitment; on production days, I spend upwards of three hours in The Dartmouth office with editors. However, it is such a rewarding process to see the work of writers published online and in print.
Overall, I am really enjoying this new role and am excited to see where it takes me!