Zoey Wilcox
Writing
Being the copy editor for the yearbook means that I am always looking at writing and helping to correct it but I actually love writing myself not just editing. For the last couple of years, I have edited copy for my yearbook staff and in the fall of 2023, I actually started writing opinion pieces for our student newspaper. With that being said writing has always been one of my favorite parts of journalism and I hope to continue learning and growing even after high school.
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Below are some of my proudest pieces written in high school...
Online Newspaper
This was the first thing I published for the online student newspaper. I loved getting to write this article because it allowed for me to show our student body a peak behind the curtain of something I love with my whole heart.
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To promote my article I pushed it not only on our media programs social media but also pushed it on my personal instagram.
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Site Stats Within the first week
Social Media Push
Within the first two weeks of my article being published it become the 5th most read article on the site, and had 99 views. When my advisor told me this I was honestly shocked I couldn't have imagined for my very first article to go so well.
Personal
RH Media
This was the very first news article I have ever written and even though it was really challenging for me to learn a new format of writing it was an amazing experience. This article was something I was extremely passionate about and it was really important to me to get all of the facts that I possibly could into this piece.
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To promote my article I pushed it not only on our media program's social media but also pushed it on my personal Instagram.
Social Media Push
Personal
RH Media
Personal
Yearbook
2022 Blue Hawk Yearbook
As a yearbook writer something that I am very familiar with is writing feature stories. What originally was a daunting task to me has actually become one of my favorite things to do. I love getting to tell someone's story in a more journalistic way. This is a feature that I wrote about pep rallies and the classroom competition at our school that is extremely cutthroat.
The coolest thing I get to do on my yearbook staff by far is writing the theme copy for our yearbook. It is one of my favorite things in the whole world and something that I look forward to every year. This was the theme copy for the opening of our 2022 yearbook Seen & Heard. Now looking back at it I have learned that I could be more specific when it came to our school but it is still something that I am extremely proud of.
2023 Blue Hawk Yearbook
The theme copy for the 2023 blue hawk yearbook entitled "It's Always Something" is honestly one of my proudest accomplishments to date. I know that in the 2022 book my biggest struggle was finding a way to make it specific to our school and so I think this year I focused greatly on that. I can not wait to see the reaction we get from our student body over it.
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Editing
Blue Hawk Yearbook Editing
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Using google docs I use suggesting mode. It is my favorite way to edit pieces because it makes every edit that I make into a suggestion instead of an immediate change. This allows my staff to see my process in editing and helps because I can leave justifications for why I change things so that they are learning from their mistakes along the way. This also makes it so they can see their original word compared to my rewrites and gives them more freedom to work with the edits.
When I edit I go through a small checklist.
The first thing I do is edit for grammar and formatting issues. I do that first because when reading really good pieces that will get rid of the bulk of their issues. This also helps with pieces that might need more work because correct grammar gives the piece a good foundation on which we can build a better piece. After fixing the format of the piece I check to make sure that it follows the flow and rules of what is being written. So if it is a feature I make sure it's in the
L-Q-T-Q-T-Q formula and the transitions flow into the quotes. If it's a quote I make sure the leading sentence flows into the quote. After that is when I start actually reading through the piece from a journalistic standpoint, trying to see if it's a good story to be told if it was done correctly, if they have strong quotes, and if goes with the content on the spread. While doing this I make sure all words, phrases, abbreviations or etc. follow AP Style rules. Overall I use the editing mode in google docs to edit because I like the way that it allows them to see every detail that was changed but also gives them the opportunity to reject certain rewrites if they have a better idea than how I phrased something. Which I encourage my staff to do on a daily basis because I never want to just take over their stories.