Jones 1 Erin Jones Goodrum 5/20/11 9:04 PM
Elang 410R
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May 19, 2011 Honest Editing
Comment [1]: I hope changing the tense to match more consistently didn’t change your meaning. I thought it would make things a little clearer without losing the tone.
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It had finally arrived: a fresh copy of the latest edition of my magazine. The one I had
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been working on for months. I may have only been a lowly intern, yet the head editors had
Comment [2]: Is there another word you could use? Perhaps just renowned? You have “world” already a few words before it.
trusted me enough to give me several articles to work on. Finally, my name would appear in
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print, in a magazine distributed to an audience of 600,000. This was my first big break into the
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publishing field, and my first exposure to the world in preparation for my career as a renowned
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author. I tore open the plastic covering with hopeful expectations. The table of contents directed
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me to an article I recognized; one I had spent hours working on. I flipped open to the article--a six-page spread about interior design--and eagerly scanned its contents. “Wait,” I thought. “This isn’t my article.” Yes, some of my ideas were there. And several of the people I had interviewed were quoted as I had written. But the voice, the organization, the content—they were not mine.
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And underneath the title, a title I had so carefully crafted, was the line: By staff.
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As one of my first times being published in a magazine, this experience was devastating.
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Yet it allowed me to understand how authors feel when we as editors aren’t honest with them.
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Editors carry a lot of power, and without a little care and a lot of honesty, we can cause harm not
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only to our authors but also to our readership. When we lose our readership, we lose our magazine, therefore damaging ourselves. Careless editors, who think only of themselves rather than their obligation to be honest to both the writer and the reader, damage their magazine, their readership, and their own reputation. Careful editors should be honest
Comment [3]: Consider deleting this as you say start to sum it up in your thesis. Try including it there. (See below in G4) Also, you talk more about just the expectations of a piece; not just the piece itself.
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Goodrum 5/20/11 9:46 PM Comment [4]: It works quite well here and gives you room to talk about this in the body of your essay as well.
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Jones 2 about their expectations of an author’s piece and honest with the reader when it comes to credibility.
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Like my internship experience, there are many authors who have been harmed by the careless work of editors. An editor can cause harm by being vague about what they are looking for in a specific piece. In doing so they mislead the author when they change much of the article after the piece is written. . Withholding this kind of information from the author is a form of dishonesty. In his book, Standing for Something, Gordon B. Hinckley says, “People who carry in their hearts a strong conviction of the Almighty and their accountability to Him for what they do
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with their lives are far less likely to become enmeshed in problems. . .Blatant dishonesty is
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openly referred to and excused as ‘misleading others’” (Hinckley page number). Editors should
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remember that they are accountable not only to the author, but to God.
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Deleted: go back Deleted: and change much of the article Deleted: in Standing for Something:
As an editor, I plan to meet with writers and explain what I’m looking for in a piece before they begin writing. I will then stay in touch with them throughout the writing process to make sure that they are on track. Michael Robert Evans, in The Layers of Magazine Editing, says, “With a comprehensive assignment, the editor and writer can negotiate key points before
Goodrum 5/20/11 9:46 PM Comment [5]: Check the ellipsis here. Is “problem” the end of the sentence? If so, you will need another period.
Goodrum 5/20/11 9:46 PM Comment [6]: A reference to an accountability to God should be included in your thesis because it is a very important part of your essay. Otherwise, this statement seems quite bold and a little out of place. (Even though it is true.)
the writer pours valuable time into the research and writing. It is always easier and more pleasant
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to hold such discussions before the writer has completed twelve interviews and written six pages
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of highly polished prose—only to discover that the editor would prefer a different angle or
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another set of information” (125-26). What if the piece comes back finished and it still isn’t right
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for the magazine? Once again, the principle of honesty is paramount in the editor’s decision.
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Rather than rewriting the piece myself, I will tell the author exactly what needs to be changed and why. Then I will let the author do the rewriting. Evans says: “Writers pour a lot of sweat and time into their words, and they suffer deeply when they open a magazine to see their byline over
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Jones 3 someone else’s sentences” (129). I know how it feels to be discredited for your own writing, and will therefore make sure that the writer always knows the intended outcome of their piece. Every change I make in the final publication I will clear by the author. Editors can also be dishonest when they change the article to make it conform to their
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Goodrum 5/20/11 9:46 PM Comment [7]: I’m not sure this is the best revision, but it was difficult for me to see why destination was there and make the connection to a writer’s piece.
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own voices. Each of us, being unique children of God, has a distinctive writing voice: it may be
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quirky, formal, or funny, but it is ours. Changing the voice may be innocently done, but it is still
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dishonest. Since I am a writer myself, I often get so excited about a piece while editing—and I just know what needs to be written to make it sound better—that I change the wording myself. I recall one instance while I wa working as a tutor at the Writing Center. A student asked for help on his paper, an analysis of a piece of artwork. He was uninterested in the assignment and no
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matter how hard I tried, he couldn’t get the knack of analyzing the painting. Finally, frustrated
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with his bland descriptions, I gave him exactly what words he could use in his paper. “Hey,
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that’s good,” he said. “Keep going.” I could have written his entire paper for him, but that
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wouldn’t have done him any favors. It also would have been dishonest. Had he tried, the student
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could have found things in the painting that I couldn’t see, and been able to describe them in a
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way that I couldn’t. If I wrote the paper for him, the professor would have recognized that the
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paper wasn’t written in his unique voice.
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In Behind the Blue Pencil, (First name)Barzun bewails over-editing as unjustly changing
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the author’s words to fit the editor’s own style. “Within the last few years the rest of a writer's
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proper business—diction, grammar, idiom, and syntax—has also fallen under the editor's sway:
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these matters of style are not the free choice of the ostensible author, but rather of the anonymous co-author brought in after the author has said his last word” (Barzun 104). The editor is not a coauthor, but rather a visible force that is present to help the author’s best voice be revealed. An
Comment [8]: Would the professor really h...ave [1] Deleted:
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Jones 4 editor should be more like the author’s conscience, quietly whispering into the author’s ear, rather than the opposing football team, tearing the football out of the author’s hands and running down the opposite length of the field. Barzun says that some editors have gone so far as to change the meaning of the text, such as the editor who substituted Mickey Mouse for Donald Duck, assuming the swap wouldn’t change the article’s meaning(page number). While editing, I will refrain from imposing my own voice on the piece, but remember that I am there to help the author do their best work. If editors recognize their accountability to God for how they treat an author and his or her article, they protect the author’s voice, tone, and wording. By applying the principle of honesty, editors can also prevent harm to innocent readers.
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Goodrum 5/20/11 8:34 PM Formatted: Font:Not Italic Goodrum 5/20/11 8:34 PM Formatted: Font:Not Italic Goodrum 5/20/11 9:46 PM Comment [9]: For Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, I would recommend leaving them in roman font because they are well known characters or you could put them in quotations to establish the fact that the example is from Barzun.
Goodrum 5/20/11 9:46 PM Comment [10]: Make sure to include the page number as you are summarizing this from Barzun.
Editors are dishonest to readers when they pretentiously act like they know more than they do.
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This often happens when they publish facts that they have not researched or fact-checked due to
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laziness, or because they hope to get a thrill out of gullible readers. We see this type of writing
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every day in the tabloids, and many readers have come to read with eyes wide open, expecting
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potential dishonesty. I remember seeing one article on the cover of a tabloid: “Fisherman finds
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miniature mermaid in his tuna sandwich.” I didn’t bother to check if the authors had any accurate sources, but I’m sure if I had, the only source would be the fisherman who had the fortune of finding the mermaid. Although the article may have been an interesting piece of fiction, I didn’t have any respect for the editors of that magazine. In a well-credited magazine, however, editors
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have an obligation to make sure the facts they publish are correct, and that the sources they use
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are reliable. Failing to do this is lying to readers. As an editor, I will be sure to do the necessary
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research for articles I write, as well as check all the research done by the authors I publish. If a mistake is printed in the magazine, I will promptly inform readers in the next issue. This will encourage readers to trust what I print.
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Jones 5 Having my claim-to-fame in the publishing world ripped from under my feet taught me that editors have the responsibility to be honest to both their writers and readers. Rather than causing harm, editors should communicate quality ideas to the public that are honestly portrayed. Through the editorial process, we have an obligation not only to our writers and readers, but to God. If we remember our accountability to Him, we will always be honest in our editing.
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