Gustafson, Prompt 2, pg.

Mckenna Gustafson
ELANG 350
November 11, 2016
Prompt 2
A Good Editor: Maven, Researcher and Communicator
Because an editors responsibilities are so important and varied, a good editor wears
many hats. A good editor must sometimes be a grammar maven, insisting strictly that grammar
and punctuation and usage rules be followed. A good editor is sometimes a researcher, checking
facts and doing researchstudying how to support the authors claims. Although I feel that I am
still an apprentice to the delicate trade of editing, I have had experiences that reassure me that I
will be successful in each of these roles of an editor. The lessons I have learned from these
experiences encourage me to keep pursuing the field of editing because I possess the
necessary desires and goals of a good editor: to follow traditional rules and grammar, to be
correct and accurate, and to communicate with clarity and cohesion for the reader.
Good editors feel a certain amount of righteous indignation for over spelling, usage, and
grammatical errors. A goodThese editors will notice errors and then approach the author with
grace and tact so as not to offend them and give a bad name for editors everywhere a bad name.
Many authors (and the public in general) already have a bad taste in their mouths toward
regarding editors as a whole because a of the common negative perception that editors are simply
know-it-alls who go around all day correcting others mistakes. I believe that I am a good editor
because I care deeply about the correctness of grammar and editing matters, but I have the ability
to control my raging inner editor and approach delicate situations with sensitivity. Saller explains
the relationship between author and editor beautifully when she wrote, You know what its like
to come back to a hotel room in the afternoon and find that housekeeping has been there and

Commented [SS1]: Is strictly meant to indicate that the

editor is insisting in a strict manner or that only grammar and
punctuation and usage rules be followed (using the definition of
strict as exact, as in the phrase strictly speaking)?

Gustafson, Prompt 2, pg. 2

everything is all fresh and put to rights? Thats how a copyeditor would like you to feel when
you see the editing. If you can view extra-duty editing as the mint on the pillow, all the better.
What we dont want is for you to feel insulted that we saw a need for cleaning (Saller 49).
Handing back a draft to authors should feel to them like a fresh cleanup has been done, not that

Commented [SS2]: Nice, applicable quote

their mistakes are being ridiculed. It requires lots of tact to make others feel like we, as editors,
are helping their piece, not attacking it.
My desire for everyone to use good grammar is always with me. Several months ago, I
was taken on a date to an indoor archery range. As we pulled up to the large warehouse-like
building, I groaned inwardly when I saw the large sign in front of the building that proudly
proclaimed the name of the archery range as Jakes Archery. There was no apostrophe to show
that the archery range belonged to Jake. I quickly checked myself mentally to see if there were
any way that Jakes could be used as an adjective. Maybe I was missing something. But after
a quick mental check, I confirmed that Jakes is not an adjective. I was even more dismayed
when we entered the building and the large welcome mat in the entrance and the signs posted
throughout the building showed the same lack of apostrophe. When we got to the counter, I
asked the man behind the counter about Jake and if he owned the archery range. I could have
made him very uncomfortable if I had pointed out the flaw in the punctuation of the name, but I
did not. Fortunately for Jake (and for my date), I was very polite and simply nodded along as I
listened to the description of how Jake owned the range. and simply nodded and let my date pay
the fee to enter the range. Being a good editor requires a certain n amount of politeness and
knowing knowledge about when it is their place to be an editor and how to approach errors.
That being said though, I do experience a little thrill inside when I discover an editing
mistake that I can fix, especially when it could potentially cause a lot of damage. Fact checking

Commented [SS3]: Perhaps include a sentence here that

outlines that instead of using the possessive term, they used a term
that looked like a plural word.
Commented [SS4]: Do you mean Jakes here?

Gustafson, Prompt 2, pg. 3

is something that I enjoy as an editor. An unchecked wrongly-quoted fact or misspelled word

could be detrimental for the author, publisher, and editor. I love doing research on many different
topics and feel that I can easily and quickly correct the kind of errors that require a little research.
Personally, I enjoy learning and gaining the opportunity that editors have to do research on a
variety of topics.
I recently had an experience with checking for accuracy when I was editing a piece all
about Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice for a student journal here at BYU. In it, the author had
used the name of the Bennet family over twenty times. As I read the article, I felt that nagging
editors voice in my head saying that I should just double check the spelling of the name. I did a
quick search online to discover that the way the author had been spelling Bennet (as Bennett)
and the way Jane Austen spelled spells the name were two completely different spellings;

Commented [SS5]: The historical present is appropriate here.

Austens spelling having has only one t. I was able to fix the spelling in twenty-two places and
my feeling of victory over incorrectness was sweet. I recognize that the author was probably so
engrossed in her research and writing that she didnt even think to look up the spelling of that
legendary family, but I enjoyed doing the job and being able to fix it. Saller writes that having a
large body of knowledge and being well-read is essential to being a successful editor. She said,
Copy editors tend to be smart and educated, and [they] have mastered a body of arcane
knowledge that [they] apply daily in [their] work (Saller 34). I want to continue to increase my
knowledge, and this desire motivates me to edit.
Out of all of this, the copyeditors job is summed up by Amy Einsohn when she said,
[The author(s), publisher, and the reader] share one basic desire: an error-free publication. To
that end, the copyeditor acts as the authors second pair of eyes, pointing outand usually
correcting . . . errors. . . . .You can conceive of a copyeditors chief concerns as

Commented [SS6]: Strong story to use as an example

Gustafson, Prompt 2, pg. 4

comprising the 4 Csclarity, coherence, consistency, and concretenessin service of the

cardinal C: communication (Einsohn 3). One of the most important jobs an editor does is
being acting as an advocate for the reader while helping the author to communicate clearly.
Taking a piece of writing and making it clear and consistent for the reader requires is a
lot of patience. It requires that every comma, semicolon, and apostrophe is in the right place so
that grave miscommunications (such as the heinous Lets eat grandma) dont take place. It
requires hours of sometimes incredibly tedious backbreaking work bending over a table or
staring at a computer screen to go over every single minute detail of a piece. It is one thing to
have an editing class where we are assigned about an hour of editing homework per night and
another thing to edit as a fulltime job, all day and all week. My experiences with editing so far
have taught me about patience as I learn the amount of effort it requires to be self-disciplined to
sit and edit and edit and edit. I have noticed that I love to edit when I am not in a big hurry, when
I have a quiet place and I dont haveno need to rush. I love the minute details, every comma,
every semicolon in its place.
For me, these reassurances are the satisfaction that comes from knowing that the piece
will be clear, coherent, and consistent is one of the best feelings in the world to me. Although
editing can sometimes be difficult work and I know that in the future I will probably encounter
uncooperative authors, short deadlines, and difficult pieces, editing is one of the most rewarding
jobs Ive ever experienced. I know I can be successful because I love the work and am motivated
to put my very best effort in to it. I will use my mistakes and successes along the way to teach
myselfe how I to better wear all the hats of an excellent editor.

Formatted: Font: 12 pt

Gustafson, Prompt 2, pg. 5

Works Cited
Einsohn, Amy. The Copyeditors Handbook. BerkelyBerkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press, Ltd., 2011.
Saller, Carol Fisher. The Subversive Copy Editor. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
2009.