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Johnson ELANG 350 Kristen Kellems
Jeff Jamison 11/18/14 2:36 PM Deleted: Marvin Gardner
17 November 2014 Writing and Editing: Two Sides of One Coin Prompt #1 I remember the exact moment I decided I wanted to become an author. It was in the sixth
Jeff Jamison 11/18/14 2:40 PM Deleted: in my life when
grade at a parent-teacher conference when my teacher praised my fiction writing skills in a school assignment where I had re-written the end of Lois Lowry’s The Giver. My decision to become an editor, however, was less of a life-changing moment but more of a process of
Jeff Jamison 11/18/14 2:41 PM Deleted: and has been more
discovery over time. However, the process of discovering my editing skills and my love for editing in general has, in fact, stemmed from my love of and skills in writing. This is no real
Jeff Jamison 11/18/14 2:43 PM Comment: Is this the right preposition?
surprise, though, since it is essential for editors to also be good writers if they want to help authors improve their work. I want to be an editor because I love to write, and because I want to help improve the written work of other writers so they can present their ideas in the best manner possible, both on a contextual and a grammatical level. For me, this is fulfilling the golden rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”; namely I wish to give the same writing help I would ask from other people. My first forays into editing actually consisted of developmental editing in the fiction genre. Thus far, this kind of editing has been the most enjoyable. I like giving suggestions for story flow and plot to help the author improve their work to appeal to their target audience. This is the kind of help I prefer to seek out in my own writing.
Jeff Jamison 11/18/14 2:45 PM Deleted: better
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For a few years, starting in junior high, I was very active on certain Internet forums such as Deviantart and Fanfiction.net, where the focus is the sharing of creative works such as art and writing, not only to show one’s skill but to seek critiques and suggestions for improvement from other artists and writers. As an author, I shared my stories on those websites, but as time went on I also found myself leaving comments, stating what I liked about stories and poetry and
Jeff Jamison 11/18/14 10:29 PM Deleted: about the content of a piece
suggesting improvements. Then, later on during my high school years, I volunteered on the site
Jeff Jamison 11/18/14 10:30 PM Deleted: along with suggesting
Fanfiction.net to be a beta reader, which is the website’s term for an editor and proofreader. The authors of the one or two fan fiction stories I worked on appreciated the input along I gave as well as my copyedits. Overall it was a valuable experience in learning how to deal with an author and become his or her friend while still giving needed advice. I even developed a good
Jeff Jamison 11/18/14 10:32 PM Deleted: Even though I was only supposed to “beta” (or proofread and edit) the one or two fanfiction stories I did end up working on, I also gave suggestions about the content and how to improve it; surprisingly, the authors I worked with
friendship with one of those authors because of how I managed to balance the duties of editor
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and helper.
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In high school I was the president of the school writing club during my junior and senior
Jeff Jamison 11/18/14 10:37 PM Deleted: two parallel yet similar
what we liked and giving suggestions for improvement. This experience was informal, but it was
Jeff Jamison 11/18/14 10:40 PM Comment: I transitional sentence between these two paragraphs would be awesome Example—along with being a beta reader for fan fiction in high school, I also…
definitely an excellent exercise in giving and receiving content editing gracefully.
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years. Every week we all participated in discussing each other’s stories out loud, both saying
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It was also during high school that I really discovered that I was good at copyediting and proofreading. Even before I learned about The Chicago Manual of Style, I had talent for finding and correcting basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. In my sophomore and junior
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years of high school I was a member of the newspaper staff, not only as a journalist but also as one of two or three copyeditors. Not only did I focus extensively on copyediting and proofreading, but I also learned how to collaborate with an author. Typically with these
Comment: I would change one to not have to repeating phrases, unless you are doing it for an effect.
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newspaper articles, I would directly ask the author about key points in the article, such as if they
same for me whenever they reviewed my submitted articles for the newspaper, which I always
Jeff Jamison 11/18/14 10:54 PM Comment: Like did the authors quote interviews correctly? I would love more specifics on this.
appreciated because I wanted to make my writing my best work. Receiving the feedback I
Jeff Jamison 11/18/14 10:55 PM Comment: He or she?
wanted motivated me to help others on the newspaper crew in the same way.
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were accurately worded and other similar questions. One of the other copyeditors also did the
Beginning here at BYU, I’ve continued both to write and to edit. However, I have discovered how different both jobs are. For example, when I need to know important historical, cultural, or field-specific information for a story, I can spend up to an hour or so using Google and other resources to find the needed specifics, However, as Einsohn says, “working copyeditors usually cannot devote hours to researching a word or two. Instead, as they go about their job of advising authors and mending manuscripts, copyeditors develop judgment about when to leave something alone, when to ask the author to recast, and when to propose a revision” (xi). Okay Amber, you have some great material and experience here. I don’t feel like you had the opportunity to tie everything together in a concluding paragraph. Your last paragraph brings up another topic that can be explored about the differences between a writer and editor and how that helps you become a better editor. You also have some great places you could slip in quotes. I think you only have one (though you have two cited sources, so I am not sure what else is cited) and you need three at least. Good luck! You got this
Jeff Jamison 11/18/14 10:56 PM Deleted: something that has become evident as I have done both is how different
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Works Cited Einsohn, Amy. The Copyeditor’s Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications. 3rd Edition. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2011. Print. Williams, Alan D. “What is an Editor?” Editors on Editing. 3rd Edition. Ed. Gerald Gross. New York: Grove Press, 1993. Electronic.