Throughout the semester, I’ve read and edited some pretty bad columns, so I’m hoping I’ve learned how to write a good one.
My time as a copy editor at The Alligator might not have been long, but that doesn’t mean my association with this paper hasn’t been.
I found out about The Alligator back at my community college, and I knew that I wanted to be a part of this paper. I remember sitting in my multimedia writing class and seeing then Editor-in-Chief Emily Cochrane talk about the paper, recruiting contributing writers and talking about the open house. I knew that was my time.
I started — like many others — as a contributing writer. I walked down the Weimer Hall stairs to the tiny room located somewhere in the dungeon. There was pizza, and I was intrigued. I went up to the laptop, wrote down my information and the emails started pouring in.
And like many others, I stopped writing after taking “Reporting.” That doesn’t mean I didn’t want to be part of the staff. I thought about if I would ever be able to add the famous “@TheAlligator alum” to my Twitter bio. Now I can.
During my time as a copy editor, I managed to do a lot of things that weren’t necessarily my job. I submitted the Pride Month social media logos to be more inclusive (which hopefully gets used every June). I started a podcast with the editor of The Avenue, which is available on iTunes, Google Music and Spotify. I even helped develop a new part of the paper where we highlight a tweet and a meme of the week.
Apart from all the laughs and stressful times this semester might have brought, it also gave me me memories and friendships that I will always be able to look back on from my last semester at UF.
It made me realize that a lot of people don’t know how to write, read or pay attention. Dear contributing writers, actually staff writers too, when I ask you to read me back your notes and quotes from your notes — and not your story — I mean it. It’s obvious when you’re reading it back from the copy you sent to your editor, which is frustrating. If you don’t look at your notes, you will think that everything that is written is correct, which isn’t always true.
Dear columnists, I appreciate you trying to inform the people, but you’re here to write an opinion and not a story. Leave all the numbers and stats behind. The copy editors already have a decent amount to fact check, and you’re not making it any easier for us. Also, don’t get your opinions from tweets, sweetie.
Dear editors, I know you see bad grammar on the stories and don’t fix it. It’s not that hard to put a comma in the right place. Like I said, make our lives a little easier. Thanks.
Overall, my time at The Alligator has been pretty great. I left my mark, and now it’s time to say my goodbyes. I had an amazing team of copy editors who helped me get better at this craft and a phenomenal chief who taught me more about AP Style than any class I’ve taken at UF. She’s not even in the J-school. They put up with my comments on everything, even the inappropriate ones, and I couldn’t be more thankful for them.
I have many more things to say, but I have to wrap it up before the other copy editors start deleting sentences to make space for other things in the paper.
Working for The Alligator has been the best part about my summer and probably one of the best parts about moving to Gainesville. I am truly sad to leave, but I’m honored that I was given this opportunity and would do it all over again if given the chance. As I walk across the stage Saturday and continue with my life, I will always remember my time in a room with people who went from being strangers to becoming my best friends.
Stefano Ferreyros is a UF journalism senior. He worked at The Alligator as a copy editor.
