Fans standing for the Anthem
Editing Internships & Positions
Are we paid for this internship? Our Internships and volunteer positions are an unpaid three to five hours a week working for an All-Volunteer site that promotes Oregon sports and has been nationally recognized by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. Interns HAVE been offered better opportunities and paying jobs from their time using FishDuck as a platform to show their skills. Learn more and join us!
What is FishDuck? Go to the “About Us” page on the site. (Top menu bar)
When do we start? We can start right away, and with most departments—it is preferred to get started soon to get some things done.
How long is the Internship? It is for two terms, or five months, whichever is longer as students or volunteers can stay as long as they want or shift over to another department or internship for more experiences. MOST of our volunteers are not students, but have full-time jobs, families, and other activities and give three to five hours a week to help the site and the fans.
Can I get college credits for Editing at FishDuck? You can now apply for upper division School Credit at the University of Oregon for your time spent on this project due to the close alliance of FishDuck with the university in providing students opportunities for improving their resume’ along with job skills to help them get hired.
Do we have to be in Eugene to be in the Internship? (Where do I go to do the work?) Most of these positions can be done online, as one writer filed his article from Europe last year and another did from Cambodia this year. We have writers and editors from Washington D.C. to British Columbia and from Quebec to Louisiana, (all over!) because online is from anywhere in the world.
Do I have to supply my phone number? This is a strange to me because it has been a deal-breaker with some potential editors. Yes you have to provide your phone number because you will have writers’ texting or calling with questions, and you will need to talk to them and to me as well as other editors.
We have a Site Contact Directory with names and phone numbers of everyone, just like a Corporate Directory because with over 100 volunteers at FishDuck—we need it to get things done. These are all very nice people who are passionate about our Ducks; this is not the time to be paranoid about privacy.
How do I edit articles? You will be taught how use one of most prominent online website platforms, WordPress, used on over four million sites. This is valuable experience with media technology and not only do we teach it to you, but we also provide documents that give advice if needed. If you can work with a Word Document…then you can operate WordPress. (It IS that simple)
We talk with you about how often you are comfortable editing and we place you on the schedule and send you the link to that schedule so you can check it at any time.
After a writer you are assigned to loads her/his article into WordPress, you (the editor) will be looking it over to help with word flow, punctuation, and overall writing advice to help the writer improve. Recently we had a writer get linked by a huge sports site, and he stated that it was the editor who offered advice who was the difference. Fun to be a part of!
We then have a second set of eyes look at it, a Firewall Editor before it is scheduled for publication. Finally we have a floating Director of Content who is passionate about helping editors improve with personal instruction.
When you leave FishDuck later….you will be a better editor, a master of Media Technology, and a ton of new friends across the nation!
Do I have to do Fact-Checking…or major Rewriting of articles? No on both questions! If a writer is lazy and gets busted on a fact by a reader—he/she gets a strike. Our editors do NOT have the time to look up their topic; editors are to do what they like to do—edit!
The editor is not to do major rewriting for the writer; when a new writer submits something that needs a LOT of work? It gets sent back with advice on how to improve; we also provide a “Common Errors” document where you can write in an email to her/him to “go to #19c in the document and apply it to the second sentence of the fourth paragraph.” This way you do not have to write out a long explanation and give examples…and do it every week. We have that written out already!
Editors are to help with punctuation, sentence flow, and the awkward combination of words that sometimes writers need help with. (Like me)
What if I have questions about how FishDuck handles something that pops up in an article? That happens often with new editors and we have the Firewall Editor on hand along with other editors to call for questions. You are not alone as every night there are three editors working.
When is time to edit? I’m on Eastern time! No problem, as we have other editors in the Eastern time zone as well. Our deadline is 3:00 PM Pacific for an article that is to be published the next day, so an editor can go in any time after the writer has let him/her know that the article is loaded and finished.
Let’s assume that there are some items that need to be changed? You would send an email to the writer with the bullet points of changes and then you would call the writer to let her/him know to check their email. (This way emails won’t sit for hours) Then the writer goes in and makes the changes. All is to be done at 9:00 PM Pacific for publication the next day. If it is not—the writer has a problem after that, not the editor!
Do I have to manage or discipline writers? No…if a writer makes the same mistake three times—you let me and the Managing Editor know and we talk to the writer from there. If you are interested in Management at FishDuck over time—those opportunities are available as well.
What style of editing do you use? We primarily use AP style with a bit a FishDuck variations that we would inform you of in advance.
When do I edit? How often? Either one night or week or two, and we work around your schedule and editors trade nights for events /vacations, etc that emerge. We’ll work with you!
For the Non-Students or Retired? For those who LIKE to edit and help student writers…this is right up your alley for one night a week of three hours. Our Editors retain the quality of the site while being “Writing Coaches” to the youth; this can be very satisfying work!
What is in it for you guys? Good question as we are simply passionate about writing, editing, and our beloved Ducks and we want to share it with our readers. Editors help make it happen!
More questions? Call me, Charles Fischer at 541-915-4541 as it is faster/easier than keyboarding, and I’m always interested in making new Duck Friends as I have done the last three years. It is a wonderful group and I invite you to join us!
FishDuck is a hot fast-growing Oregon Duck football site with more than 100 volunteers helping with Writing, Editing, Photography, Research, and the Social Media aspects of the site and serving visitors from more than 50 countries who read our articles between a quarter to a half million times every month.
We seek to educate and entertain our readers with Football Analysis, Op-Ed articles, Recruiting, Player Profiles, History, and even Humor. We have been interviewed and cited/quoted as a source by the Wall Street Journal, and twice have been featured in prominent articles in the Online Sports Section of The Washington Post as our football instructional videos have been viewed more than a Million times by fans and coaches.
FishDuckhas even been accredited by Google News as an official Oregon Sports news source, and we are UO Media Credentialed, sitting on Press Row in the Autzen Stadium Press Box and in the Matthew Knight Basketball Arena.
