For those who don’t know, Wednesday nights in The Oracle office is when every member of the staff puts their studious minds to the test and produces the paper for Thursday’s publication and distribution. We all have one goal: to finish as soon as possible.
But in order to do that, we must have each article go through at least three rounds of editing. The first round consists of five different copy editors going through each paragraph to make sure the work conforms to AP style.
The second round is for editing the layout on the paper, making sure nothing got past our page editors. Four copy editors have to edit at this level. We worked hard on these articles, and we don’t want to waste them over a stupid grammar mistake.
The third, and final, round only needs three people to sign it off — but that doesn’t mean we have to relinquish our editing skills. It means that we have to be extra critical of every detail, read the article backwards if we have to, in order to send it to the Editor-in-Chief.
The final boss is scary. Miss Woolrich means well, but you do not want to cross her. She will tear you a new one.
This process is not as smooth sailing as you might think it is. We spend at least five hours in that office, going over the paper with a fine-tooth comb. Keep in mind, The Oracle team is entirely student-run and there are countless times we get sidetracked; from getting food to spilling tea (both literally and figuratively) to unnecessary (yes, I’m throwing shade … deal.) energy bursts and smoke breaks. There are a plethora of obstacles and challenges that night that we overcome … one way or another.
