How to Write for Compass Check and Get Extra Credit in Your English Class

Editor's note: Since this article was published, there have been some role changes: Devin Schulz is Editor, and Ariana Vazquez is Managing Editor.

The staff here (primarily myself, Kourtney Kovanis and Mitch Moss), absolutely LOVE working with anyone who wants to submit an article for consideration. And don’t worry about your article being dumb or full of heresy or anything like that. That’s what we’re here for: to help you write the best article you can and have fun doing it.

So, what do you need to do to get started? It’s a very simple three-step process:

Step 1 – Come up with an idea for what you want to talk about.

Step 2 – Get it down on paper (or your computer) in around 1,200 words or so. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just write your article the best way you know how.

Step 3 – send it via email to CompassCheck@ucg.org

That’s it. It is truly that easy. Now, once your article gets to us, it will go through a lot of other steps, but for you, the hard work is over! From here on out, we’ll do the work of editing, formatting, spell-checkking (I did that on purpose . . .) and whatnot, to get your article ready for print. If there is any work you need to do, you’ll get a friendly email from Kourtney or myself with suggestions. We’ll fix the small stuff, like punctuation, grammar, etc. without hassling you.

So, what does the process look like once you send in your article? Here’s a quick breakdown of what happens to your article after you hit the “send” button:

1. The article arrives in my email inbox. I will read over it and send it to Mitch and Kourtney, to get their feedback. (BTW, Kourtney is our Managing Editor. She’s responsible for managing the process of getting articles written and making sure they are a good fit for Compass Check. Mitch Moss is our Content Editor. He looks at articles to see how the tone fits with Compass Check, and how they will actually look when printed on paper. Matt Hernandez is another guy who helps a lot with Compass Check—he’s responsible for a lot of the cool graphic designs you see. My job as Editor is to be responsible for the overall magazine. Think of me as J. Jonah Jameson from Spiderman. I sit behind my desk and yell “STOP THE PRESSES” and stuff like that. If people don’t understand things, or have questions about an article after it’s been published, I’m usually the one they come to talk to).

2. Your article is then sent on to Copyediting. At this stage, one of our volunteers (or sometimes Kourtney or myself) will begin to lightly edit your article if needed. We might rearrange the order of sentences to help with the flow, or perhaps suggest adding more details or eliminating redundancies. If there’s anything really big, we send the updated version back to you, as the author, to get your input. We don’t want you to feel like we are taking over your article and re-writing it for you! So if it’s a pretty big change that needs to be made, you’ll have the opportunity to change it the way you like.

3. Next it goes on to proofreading. This is a straightforward review of grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. We’ll also make sure that if you’ve quoted any scriptures, the verses you mention are the correct ones. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve written in my notes something like Matthew 2:20 when I really meant Matthew 20:2. (FYI – we usually try to stick to the New King James Version [NKJV] for most scriptures, but if there’s another translation that helps bring out the true meaning of the verse, we’re cool with that too.)

4. From here, the article goes on to be reviewed by a team that consists mostly of UYC Camp Directors. I can’t think of a single article that has been written where there hasn’t been at least one person on the review team who says, “Hey, I know this person!” The review team looks at the overall article and makes suggestions for updates if they see a need. Just like the copyediting stage, if it’s anything big, we’ll make sure to keep you in the loop.

5. Next it goes to a final review. This is just one last step to make sure everything in the article is doctrinally accurate and matches what the Bible teaches. Very rarely do we have to make any changes at this stage.

6. After this, the article goes through one last proofreading for grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. Heidi Braun, who works as the Associate Editor for Internal Publications (and does a lot of work on the United News!) helps us a lot with this. You might remember reading about her in the Fall 2023 Issue of Compass Check, in the “Notes on the Way” section. Lena VanAusdle (who works as a Proofreader for the Church) also helps a lot with this part.

7. Finally, the article gets laid out on a computer with graphics, pictures, etc. This is where Mitch Moss and Matthew Hernandez do a lot of work. Do you like the overall look and feel of Compass Check? These are the guys who make it happen!

So, that’s pretty much it. Writing for Compass Check is not only easy, it’s a lot of fun! Plus, if you play your cards right, you might be able to get some extra credit in your English class for having an article published! (And it looks really good on your resume when you start applying to colleges or jobs).

I hope this helps make the idea of writing an article look less scary, and I hope to see your ideas soon!