The work of a copy editor, when done right, should be unseen. In many ways, the work is a thankless task. No one notices if an article has no typos or factual errors — but if you get something wrong, be prepared for someone to point it out. However, after three years at the Copy desk, including two semesters as copy chief, I’ve found that the most fulfilling part of the work is its behind-the-scenes nature.

Most readers do not know that WSN has a team of around 20 copy editors and four copy chiefs who look at every single article to make sure everything is accurate and adheres to stylistic guidelines. Copy editors are behind almost every story we publish, even if their names are not on the masthead of the newspaper. Unlike other desk editors who have editorial input and shape the stories we put out, the Copy team focuses on the more minute details of the story that are often overlooked. We check everything from whether “president” should be capitalized (yes if it is before a name, but not after) or “United States” abbreviated to “U.S.” (only when it is an adjective).

When I first became a copy editor in my sophomore year, I didn’t like how my own stylistic preferences often had to be set aside to follow WSN’s copy-editing style. I joined the desk because I have unnecessarily strong opinions about punctuation, but as a copy editor, your own choices come second to the AP Stylebook. For example, in my personal writing, I am a staunch devotee of the Oxford comma, which the AP Stylebook labels a heresy. At times, I also disagreed with a writer’s stance or had my own thoughts about how to make an article better. But copy editors are supposed to comment on a writer’s factual accuracy, not their opinions. As long as writers aren’t telling lies, it’s not really my job to decide what is worth publishing.

While this used to bother me, editing literally hundreds of articles has taught me to respect a writer’s individual voice. My job is ultimately to support the work of desk editors who make those bigger editorial decisions, even if I may not necessarily agree with their choices. This doesn’t mean that my own voice has been stifled, but just that I am allowing someone else’s to come through. As I stepped into a larger leadership role as copy chief, I’ve only become more confident in my feedback as an editor and the role that the Copy desk plays in ensuring journalistic integrity.

At the end of the day, the writers are still the ones who are putting themselves out there and being vulnerable enough to have their work scrutinized by readers. In a way, because a copy editor’s job is hidden, we are protected from the scrutiny that student journalists often face. In 2024, when WSN was covering pro-Palestinian protests on campus, copy editing allowed me to feel involved with the NYU community, even if I was not on the ground at the protests myself. In a time when NYU and other universities were at the center of national conversation, it was my peers, and not me, who were the ones putting themselves at risk to report on these events. While I may not be a student journalist myself, I feel very lucky that I got to support their work, even if it’s just the small contribution of flagging all the Oxford commas.

These three years at WSN’s Copy desk have let me feel a part of something larger than myself. We might not get everything right — every morning after our stories are published, there’s a flurry of typos and errors that have to be corrected. But I am proud to be one of many people at WSN who help an article get to its best form, even without being listed on its byline.