Practice makes better

Copy editing is nothing new to me.  My first real experience with editing someone else's work came during the 2009 spring semester in my Advanced Editing & Design class.  During every class period, Professor Andrick would have us look over at least one manuscript from the JMC301 class.  At first I was slightly hesitant to mark up someone else's hard work, but that went by the wayside rather quickly.  After the first few weeks I was making the 301 student's copy bleed with red ink and my hesitation was gone forever.  By the end of the semester I really had to watch myself to keep from completely rewriting the copy.

Following the spring semester I began work as the Managing Editor of Marshall University's daily student newspaper, The Parthenon.  Once I starting working in this position I was editing five or six articles every Wednesday.  This was a major factor in developing my copy editing skills.  The repetition of editing papers was what really got me familiar with AP style and proper grammar.  I have found that most people hate busy work, but I think that the repetition is really what has helped me get better.