Last line of defense

Working as a copy editor can be a thankless job sometimes.
For the most part, we’re an invisible, anonymous part of the newspaper staff. Yet, the job we do is one of the most important. There’s a lot of responsibility resting on our shoulders. We’re the last line of defense for keeping the paper from being sued. We also work hard to keep the stories grammatically correct and error-free. Unfortunately, mistakes do happen. We’re only human, after all. If we miss something and it’s glaring at us from the front page, we won’t hear the end of it. Not for a while, anyway.
Even though not many people know who we are, we love our jobs. It’s a great feeling to put the paper to bed at night and wake up the next morning to see our work stacked up in racks all over campus.
So, if you find a spelling mistake from time to time, please forgive us. Chances are we already know about it.

-- Copy Desk
Lauren Smith
First-year copy editor