Journalism – American Cowboy Magazine
At American Cowboy Magazine I experienced first hand what it means to be a magazine editor.
The first lesson was an acute attention to detail and the reputation you build by this. I fact checked an entire copy, poured over my Associated Press Stylebook, called countless experts and fans, scrutinized maps, and one time spent an entire hour determining the proper use of a comma.
I also gained experience editing other people’s work. My mentor guided me in how to do different edits with each pass and what to look for. He also helped explain how to communicate with the author, so that I wasn’t changing their piece just improving it. I edited an article about a rodeo and helped the author write a better piece instead of changing his words and work.
The magazine is bimonthly so that means all the photos and articles are more heavily analyzed and researched. This means the deadline isn’t as immediate a newspaper and this helped me learn how to pace myself for deadlines that are months apart.
I also got to write articles, book reviews, and informational pieces.
Some examples of my work are below.