An Editor's Role

I have been editing texts for over ten years. In that time I have worked with all kinds of source material: academic theses and articles, fiction and non-fiction, biographies and business plans.

I sometimes think of the Dr Seuss poem Oh the Places You’ll Go, except for me it becomes Oh the Things You’ll Read.

Writing is a skill; like any skill it requires practise and persistence to get better. Simply because you can speak a language, does not automatically qualify you as a good writer. Our speech patterns can bleed onto the page or computer screen, creating a mess of too many lazy contractions, misplaced jargon, confused punctuation and rambling sentences. Too often we write how we speak and—unless you are writing a screenplay or script—it is better to make the effort to distinguish between how you speak and how you write.

This where an editor's job begins, working with the text to distil the meaning, while not losing the essence of what the writer intended. A good editor is not someone who simply points out flaws and mistakes, or who pedantically corrects usage or common misconceptions. They will of course be able to do these things, but will not disparage the writer in the process. An editor is not the same thing as a critic, whose purpose is to review and come to a judgment; an editor’s objective is to review and find improvements. They want what (presumably) the writer wants: for the text to be the best it can possibly be, for people to understand and enjoy it.

An editor’s role is less like the teacher wielding a red marker pen or the pedantic grammarian who says you are wrong, it is more like a sports coach or personal trainer—someone that works with you, encourages you, someone that demands much from you, and knows it can be achieved.