Working with Writers

This week, I had a great time as I was able to act as an editor/coach for a friend of mine. I learned a lot from the readings as well as the hand-on experience. The most important thing I learned during this experience as an editor was to remember that this was someone’s ideas and hard work. It was my job to encourage them and accentuate the positive while still editing and improving it. I think as an editor it is easy to forget that someone has worked very hard to put all of these ideas together. They thought that it was good enough to present to someone so you must be considerate of their feelings. There must be a balance between being kind enough that you help them feel confident in their work, and being harsh enough in the editing that you will help them improve their work. After working with Sydney on this paper, I felt as though I was a true editor and that I followed Harrigan’s guidelines to become one. I hope that I get many opportunities in the future to improve not only my writing, but help others as well.

The editing mistake I found this week was in a facebook post. This girl was telling a story about her guardian angel but instead of angel, she typed "angle." This significantly changed the meaning of the story when she was talking about her "guardian angle."