Eye for Editing: Beyond Typos

Today we bring you the second post from our newest guest blogger, Paula Robertson. Paula’s blog will explore the topic of editing—technical editing, editing as a skill, practical tips, personal stories, and whatever tangent that might lead to. She hopes to engage you in discussion and thought to answer the question, “Do you have an Eye for Editing?”

In my first blog post, I posited the following three editing skill or ability levels:

1. The ability to notice when something in a text is not “right.”
2. The ability to know what to do to make it right.
3. 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 stamp out 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 post, 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 likely 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 notion 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 notion 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 been sanctioned to tell my fellow writers where they were wrong and they had to listen to me!

Actually, that only sort of worked in varying degrees because we already had a rapport as a team. And 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 offered 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 seemingly created. As long as my edits were implemented.

I now know that when that job ended, I had not yet earned the title of editor.

I had originally planned for this post to work itself into some kind of a happy ending. 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 are not there yet. Not even close.

Paula Robertson has been in technical communication for a long time, constantly swapping out the various titles of writer, editor, and designer. No matter what her current job title, she likes to call herself the “Insightful Editor.” In STC, her current job title is Judge Manager for the 2013-14 International Summit Awards.