Editor’s Note: A version of this article was originally published in the STC Notebook in October 2013 as the second in a series. Over the course of 2022, we hope to publish more of these articles. To make it easier for you to find these articles again in the future, they will be tagged with the Eye for Editing tag, and the titles prefaced with the same phrase.
In my previous article, I suggested the following editing skill or ability levels:
- The ability to notice when something in a text is not “right.”
- The ability to know what to do to make it right.
- The ability to explain to someone else (an author) in an effective way how they can make it right.
I just want to clarify that the ability to eradicate typos is a remedial precursor to the first step in my list. You knew that, right?
I also asked whether the ability to spot errors is learned or innate, and I offered my opinion that it’s some of both. A colleague challenged me, “I don’t believe that the ability to see errors is innate, though you do make a compelling case. Stuff that happens outside of consciousness is mysterious and fascinating.” So allow me to clarify, by way of furthering this discussion. I’m making a distinction between the fact that we all have certain innate propensities, inside or outside of consciousness. The conscious choice to recognize and develop any such propensity toward a useful purpose is ours.
In this article, I’d like you to explore two questions with me.
- When did you know you wanted to do editing?
- When did you know that you are an editor?
In my experience, the distance between the two answers is great. It is numbered in years. That’s where the “learned” part comes in.
I believe that one earns and develops the ability and disposition to be an editor. The way is paved with trial and error, travail and arrows, and a huge dose of humility.
I sought to become a technical editor in the same way that I first sought to become a technical writer. The idea was suggested to me by someone else—someone whose professional opinion and expertise I valued, someone whom I acknowledged to have a longer and higher understanding of the profession than I did. Their confidence in me inspired my own.
But again, the idea is only the genesis. Then begins the work.
Several years after transitioning into my first technical writing position, my team lead said that he wanted me to be a backup editing resource for our only full-time editor. Finally! I had sanction to tell my fellow writers where their writing was incorrect, and they had to act on my suggestions!
That only partially worked in varying degrees, because we already had an established rapport as a team; my role in the team was somewhat fixed. But I had the benefit of the patience and wisdom of the full-time editor. Unfortunately, that mentorship took me only so far. I sensed that I lacked something…
So after I bled all over a document, I would offer to help the author stop the bleeding. Under a tight deadline with an unexpected enthusiasm of edits, I was happy to help clean up the mess I had created, as long as the author implemented my edit suggestions. Yes!
I now know that when that job ended, I had not yet earned the title of editor. I had not yet acquired the understanding that editing is so much more than “fixing” text. It is about establishing a dialogue and a relationship with the author.
I had originally planned for this article to work itself into some kind of a happy ending, such as my arrival at the milestone of becoming a full-fledged, full-time technical editor. But as I mentioned, the road is long. The distance between discovering that you would like to do editing and the day when you realize that you have become an editor is years wide. We haven’t made it to that point in our journey yet. Not even close.
Paula Robertson has been in technical communication for a long time or longer, depending on how you choose to define it. No matter what her current job title, she likes to call herself the “Full-service Editor.” In STC, her current job title is Facilitator for the Solo Technical Communicator SIG/COI. You can reach her at: solotechnicalcommunicator@gmail.com.
I am grateful these older articles are being reprinted. I am enjoying the series immensely. I’m realizing, having read this one (Beyond Typos) that the serious pitfall of proposal editing, which I’m doing now for a global corporation, is the editors’ inability to confer and dialogue especially with the less experienced writers. Have you any suggestions for improving that situation, or must it be one of those “it’s how it’s always been, deal with it” situations, do you think?
Hello Claudia. Thanks so much for your post. Glad you’re enjoying the reprise…
Could you explain a bit as to what you mean: “editors’ inability to confer and dialogue especially with the less experienced writers.”
In light of the topic of my post, are you saying that some editors don’t have that innate sense…and therefore don’t handle author/editor communication very well? I’m not sure what “situation” you mean.