The Eagle Explains: The Copy Team
By: Georgina DiNardo, Copy Managing Editor
I never dreamed that I would be where I am today. When the small, innocent freshman that I was joined The Eagle, I didn’t realize that I would even enter the copy team, let alone become the managing editor. In high school, I dreaded opening the AP Stylebook. At the beginning, my grammar was so horrible that I couldn’t tell you what a semicolon was if my life depended on it. But, as time went on, I learned from my mistakes and turned my hatred of the AP Stylebook into toleration. And soon that toleration became ingrained in my mind and, strangely, turned into excitement. I no longer thought of the stylebook as busy work or just boring grammar. Yet copy is all about grammar. Copy, unlike the other sections of The Eagle, has a very unique position. Instead of focusing on one aspect of The Eagle and reporting on that, the copy team edits all of the pieces produced by The Eagle to make sure the grammar is correct and that formerly-dreaded AP Style is used properly.
While our names may not be on every article we edit, we edit them just as closely and properly as if we had written them ourselves. My wonderful team of copy editors helps me navigate the countless articles flowing through The Eagle and helps me catch grammatical errors that may slip through my fingers. They are amazing, intelligent people who are a crucial part of The Eagle. Without copy, every piece you read would look different. Not as clean or sharp, still great, but not the same. The copy team may not shine in the spotlight, but we do not need to. We work in the background to make sure the work gets done.
The other six managing editors are fantastic at what they do and edit their staff’s articles intelligently and diligently, but copy is always there to pick up certain errors that go unnoticed at first glance. Copy is the silent, yet crucial part of The Eagle. As the managing editor, I cannot count the amount of times that I have stayed up so late that I’m afraid to check the clock, while editing an article, because copy can be a lot of work. It’s hard to make sure every error is caught and every article cleaned, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love my job and I cannot thank my copy editors, who help me get through all the edits and catch those I miss, enough.
