Zoey Wilcox
Law, Ethics, Literacy
As a copy editor, it is essential to my job to know how to write and edit with the law, ethics, and news literacy in mind. With that being said I am still learning and developing the best strategies I can for a way to help my staff but I do have strategies that I use when editing.
​
This is how we stay up to date...
Fact Checking
The first thing that I do Is fact-check everything. Any time there is a number, statistic, fact, or anything I make sure that it is credible and correct using the internet or a calculator to evaluate the information. I also require that my staffers find two sources for any information that they would like to include in something and that they should be credible.
Above are a couple of modules in our yearbook this year that are fact or number-heavy. I will go through and double-check that all of the numbers are correct and as you can see there is even a number error in the module above. (number of minuets in four years of high school)
AP Style
The next biggest thing that I use to keep myself and my staff up to date is the Ap Style book. I live by the rules and regulations in this book. You could walk into the yearbook room and hear me saying "look it up in the Ap Style book" about a billion times a day. With that being said I have studied this book and also am always reading over it so that I learn as much as possible to help my staff. I do this by annotating my copy and important flagging pages.