An Editor is A Writer (and Vice Versa)

Writers and editors produce a wide variety of written materials delivered to an audience in an increasing number of ways. They develop content using any number of multimedia formats for readers, listeners, or viewers. Although many people write as part of their primary job, or on on-line chats or blogs, only writers and editors who are paid for their work are included in this occupation. (News analysts, reporters and correspondents, who gather information and prepare stories about newsworthy events, are described elsewhere in the Handbook.)

Writers fall into two main categories—writers and authors and technical writers. Writers and authors develop original written materials for books, magazines, trade journals, online publications, company newsletters, radio and television broadcasts, motion pictures, and advertisements. Their works are classified broadly as either fiction or nonfiction and writers often are identified by the type of writing they do—for example, novelists, playwrights, biographers, screenwriters, and textbook writers. Some freelance writers may be commissioned by a sponsor to write a script; others may be contracted to write a book on the basis of a proposal in the form of a draft or an outline. Writers may produce materials for publication or performance, such as songwriters or scriptwriters.

Writers work with editors and publishers throughout the writing process to review edits, topics, and production schedules. Editors and publishers may assign topics to staff writers or review proposals from freelance writers. All writers conduct research on their topics, which they gather through personal observation, library and Internet research, and interviews. Writers, especially of nonfiction, are expected to establish their credibility with editors and readers through strong research and the use of appropriate sources and citations. Writers and authors then select the material they want to use, organize it, and use the written word to express story lines, ideas, or to convey information. With help from editors, they may revise or rewrite sections, searching for the best organization or the right phrasing.

Copy writers are a very specialized type of writer. They prepare advertising copy for use in publications or for broadcasting and they write other materials to promote the sale of a good or service. They often must work with the client to produce advertising themes or slogans and may be involved in the marketing of the product or service.

Technical writers put technical information into easily understandable language. They prepare product documentation, such as operating and maintenance manuals, catalogs, assembly instructions, and project proposals. Technical writers primarily are found in the information technology industry, writing operating instructions for online Help and documentation for computer programs. Many technical writers work with engineers on technical subject matters to prepare written interpretations of engineering and design specifications and other information for a general readership. Technical writers also may serve as part of a team conducting usability studies to help improve the design of a product that still is in the prototype stage. They plan and edit technical materials and oversee the preparation of illustrations, photographs, diagrams, and charts.

Most writers and editors have at least a basic familiarity with technology, regularly using personal computers, desktop or electronic publishing systems, scanners, and other electronic communications equipment. Many writers prepare material directly for the Internet. For example, they may write for electronic editions of newspapers or magazines, create short fiction or poetry, or produce technical documentation that is available only online. These writers also may prepare text for Web sites. As a result, they should be knowledgeable about graphic design, page layout, and multimedia software. In addition, they should be familiar with interactive technologies of the Web so that they can blend text, graphics, and sound together. Bloggers who are paid to write may be considered writers.

Many writers are considered freelance writers. They are self-employed and sell their work to publishers, publication enterprises, manufacturing firms, public relations departments, or advertising agencies. Sometimes, they contract with publishers first to write a book or an article. Others may be hired to complete specific short-term or recurring assignments, such as writing about a new product or contributing to an organization’s quarterly newsletter.

Editors review, rewrite, and edit the work of writers. They also may do original writing. An editor’s responsibilities vary with the employer and type and level of editorial position held. Editorial duties may include planning the content of books, technical journals, trade magazines, and other general-interest publications. Editors also review story ideas proposed by staff and freelance writers then decide what material will appeal to readers. They review and edit drafts of books and articles, offer comments to improve the work, and suggest possible titles. In addition, they may oversee the production of publications. In the book-publishing industry, an editor’s primary responsibility is to review proposals for books and decide whether to buy the publication rights from the author.

Major newspapers and newsmagazines usually employ several types of editors. The executive editor oversees assistant editors, and generally has the final say about what stories are published and how they are covered. Assistant editors have responsibility for particular subjects, such as local news, international news, feature stories, or sports. The managing editor usually is responsible for the daily operation of the news department. Assignment editors determine which reporters will cover a given story. Copy editors mostly review and edit a reporter’s copy for accuracy, content, grammar, and style.

In smaller organizations—such as small daily or weekly newspapers—a single editor may do everything or share responsibility with only a few other people. Executive and managing editors typically hire writers, reporters, and other employees. They also plan budgets and negotiate contracts with freelance writers, sometimes called “stringers” in the news industry.

Editors often have assistants, many of whom hold entry-level jobs. These assistants, frequently called copy editors, review copy for errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling and check the copy for readability, style, and agreement with editorial policy. They suggest revisions, such as changing words and rearranging sentences and paragraphs, to improve clarity or accuracy. They also carry out research for writers and verify facts, dates, and statistics. In addition, they may arrange page layouts of articles, photographs, and advertising; compose headlines; and prepare copy for printing. Publication assistants who work for publishing houses may read and evaluate manuscripts submitted by freelance writers, proofread printers’ galleys, and answer letters about published material. Assistants on small newspapers or in radio stations compile articles available from wire services or the Internet, answer phones, and make photocopies.

Work environment. While some writers and editors work in comfortable, private offices, others work in noisy rooms filled with the sounds of keyboards and the voices of other writers tracking down information or interviewing sources. The search for information sometimes requires that writers travel to diverse workplaces, such as factories, offices, or laboratories, but many find their material through telephone interviews, the library, and the Internet.

Advances in electronic communications have changed the work environment for many writers. Laptop computers and wireless communications technologies allow growing numbers of writers to work from home and on the road. The ability to e-mail, transmit and download stories, research, or review materials using the Internet allows writers and editors greater flexibility in where and how they complete assignments.

Some writers keep regular office hours, either to maintain contact with sources and editors or to establish a writing routine, but most writers set their own hours. Many writers—especially freelance writers—are paid per assignment; therefore, they work any number of hours necessary to meet a deadline. As a result, writers must be willing to work evenings, nights, or weekends to produce a piece acceptable to an editor or client by the publication deadline. Those who prepare morning or weekend publications and broadcasts also may regularly work nights, early mornings, and weekends.

While many freelance writers enjoy running their own businesses and the advantages of working flexible hours, most routinely face the pressures of juggling multiple projects with competing demands and the continual need to find new work. Deadline pressures and long, erratic work hours—often part of the daily routine in these jobs—may cause stress, fatigue, or burnout. In addition, the use of computers for extended periods may cause some individuals to experience back pain, eyestrain, or fatigue.

Good Housekeeping: What to Look For When Editing

It's true that editing can be a tedious process, and sometimes you just feel like hitting the "delete" button altogether to make the problems go away. But to simplify things, there are various types of mistakes that I have already predetermined I need to look for. Most people assume that editors like me check just for spelling and punctuation, but for most editors in the corporate setting, there is much more to this superficial marking.

The following categories are areas all aspiring editors should take into consideration when editing:

1) CONTENT: Before any other step, the first item I check for is the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the document. To check for accuracy, I make sure that the document has met the required specifications in terms of what type of information has been offered and if that information came from valid sources. Second, I reread the document to make sure the average reader would understand it. Do the words make any sense? Is it logical? Does the information meet the needs of the audience, or would it make them more confused? Are there any areas that can be rewritten better for the sake of readability and clarity? At this point, it would be safe to do some fact-checking of the information received, especially if the document were a research-oriented piece, such as a peer-reviewed medical journal. If the information is too technical beyond my knowledge, it would be best to seek the advice of an expert; in my case as an editor for a CME company, I would seek the opinion of other scientifically-trained experts, such as the Clinical Affairs department or the Medical Editor, usually a physician specialized in a specific area of oncology.

2) COPYEDITING: Now that you have learned to fully trust the content, I can proceed to the other phases of editing:
• Spelling: Are you absolutely certain that all the words have been spelled correctly? Pay careful attention to homonyms (e.g., “accept” versus “except”; “their” versus “there”; “compliment” versus complement”, and the list goes on). Are there any technical terms that are completely foreign to you and/or are extremely long (e.g. “chronic myelogenous leukemia” or generic drug names like “Liposomal daunorubicin”). Feel free to use a dictionary to look up any foreign words (primarily any European language or Greek/Latin derivatives used for scientific terminology).
• Grammar: Check for correct sentence structure, subject verb agreement, and consistency in tense usage
• Punctuation: Inconsistencies in punctuation will lead to issues with spelling and grammar. Make sure all commas are inserted after dependent clauses, listed nouns, and abbreviated words (also known as “contractions”); likewise, check that quotation marks are used within quoted excerpts, dialogues, and new terminology. Foreign names (especially French and German words) require consistent use of accent marks; unless you are fluent in those languages, be sure to have a dictionary handy to double-check along with spelling.

3) FORMAT: Once the text looks fine, look at the document as a whole. Are the spacing and textual arrangements consistent? If you’re not sure, check to see the following are consistent and meet you or your employer’s required criteria:
• Spacing: Is the document single-spaced, double-spaced, or somewhere in between? Is this spacing style applied throughout the document? How is the line spacing overall? Do you notice any inconsistencies with lines of text being larger than spaces that separate entire sections or paragraphs? Are the margins set correctly, so that information is not cut out, nor crammed?
• Orientation: Landscape or portrait, your document’s orientation is important, especially when it that involves some degree of graphic art or photography. Examples of this include (but are not limited to): posters, book or video covers, billboards, brochures, website banners, etc. Is space used well with the orientation you are now viewing, or would it be better to have the lay-out personnel or graphic artist do some rearranging?

4) REFERENCING: Last, but certainly not least, have all the information presented been referenced properly according to you or your employer’s preferred style manual? It is imperative that references are included on the document if information based off of another source is being used. Without it, not only does the editor jeopardize the credibility of the document, but also poses the risk of being accused of plagiarism. Referencing applies to all types of information in the following ways:
• Text: Internal citations, footnotes, and bibliographic/reference sections
• Graphics: Captions containing the references from where they came from; most publishers now require that a fee be paid for using their tables or figures, so the editor would have to fill out and submit a permissions request
• Audio/Visual: Give references to the people who created the audio/visual file, whether it be a visiting lecturer for a podcast or a musician for a live performance. If the program recorded is owned and copyrighted by another company (such as a TV station like the Public Television Station), be sure to include that as well.

Technical Editors: Going Beyond the Red Pen

An editor’s responsibility is to ensure successful data transmission, analysis, and interpretation from the text to the audience by implementing correct grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and punctuation. An editor also is an organizer who ensures that all the necessary components of the product are included and these components are in the correct order that suites the learning needs of the desired audience. In addition, an editor is a product designer; he or she holds much of the final decision-making in how a product looks from the cover to the illustrations within the product and any associated supplementary material. Finally, an editor plays the role of a business negotiator, as he or she seeks the best prices for outside publishing vendors for permissions requests, photo purchasing, and hiring freelance writers/editors for specific projects.

In the case mentioned above, editors would be forced to hand over incomprehensible work to someone else more qualified, or would have to seek advice from someone more experienced (higher management). In my personal experience, there were a few occasions when I came across a hefty amount of statistical data, more than what I was used to editing. I was very hesitant to go ahead with the editing process because I feared that my revisions would change the meaning of the data or would make it totally incomprehensible to the audience. I therefore sought advice from our medical editor who was not only a good writer, but also had a medical degree specializing in that same field and was a lead investigator in several clinical trials.However at some times, these medical editors (who are also full-time physicians) are so busy with their schedule that at times they are not able to reply to my questions in time before the deadline, which makes fulfillment of my roles all the more challenging.

Final (for the time being) Reflection

My overall growth as a blogger has grown tremendously after maintaining this blog. The first area in which you can say I was, well, "converted" was in my attitude towards the whole idea of blogging. I've grown to respect bloggers and appreciate the time and effort they put into posting their ideas and knowledge. Originally, I underestimated their important role in technical communications and assumed that bloggers were people with mostly interesting and sometimes irrelevant ideas with too much time on their hands; I liken them to radio and television talk show hosts.

After taking PTC 605 (Elements of Visual Design), a course part of the Professional and Technical Communications Masters program at NJIT, this blog was my exercise for the entire semester. I wasn't exactly sure where my class was going with this, and I found it a little impractical; I wondered what employer would care if I write up a blog? And forget about career; when am I going to do this at all? I initially perceived the maintenance of this blog as a load of busy work.

My presumptions changed however as I published more posts throughout the semester. The blog topics assigned for my graduate course enabled me to think creatively and analyze the present issues about technical communication within the Internet and related computer technology. Instead of "regurgitating" information picked up from other publications, I had the opportunity of publishing my ideas that evolved from a combination of past learnt information, past experiences, and my personal views. Inevitably, not only was creatively exercising free speech, but I realized my ability to serve as a contributing member of society through the sharing of ideas and knowledge to a growing audience from one to potentially millions.

The visual and written changes to my blog are still evolving. When I began this blog, I approached this site as an experiment for my classmates and myself as we delved into the new features of the World Wide Web, including blogging. Therefore, as you may notice in the screenshots from the November 26th blog entry (entitled “Redesigning the Blog”), my visual choices were bland since I chose to use a simple, standardized template entitled “Rounders 2” offered by blogger.com for new blogging members. This was comprised of a crimson-colored page header background, while the remaining text backgrounds were in various shades of gray. I also didn’t bother putting up a photo of myself and wasn’t aware of the option to add a banner, so the heading was also very simple and would probably fail in attracting other subscribers.

As I better understood the enormous effect a blogger can have on the web community, I was determined to change the look of my blog. As you’ll see in my past blog entitled “Redesigning the Blog”, I included a personal banner at the top of my blog site to serve as an identifier for other viewers. My choice was based on the overall color palette of the entire blog (which is primarily black, and degrees of blue, green, and purple), as well as the intent of my blog. The font style I chose is called "OCR A Extended", which I found appropriate for my technology-oriented blog as it reminds me of the digital numbers on a clock, weighing machine, or computer, and is also the same font used for many a computer program scripts.

I also made some changes to the template CSS to move it away from the "standard" Blogger templates that make your blog look like thousands of others online. This included changing font styles (bolding most of them for the sake of readability), changing colors of backgrounds, and changing font colors. I also decided to include a picture of myself in replacement of the NJIT logo to make add a personal touch.

The colors I chose were mainly to enhance the readability of the blog and the overall look. I felt that bright (though not too bright, like neon) against a black background would give a more contemporary and professional look, without being a distraction and inappropriate as some other colors might (like neon pink).

As for the written changes to my blog, I tried as best as possible to improve my writing style by creating entries that reflect my understanding of the blog topics and effectively apply new concepts and current issues to real-life situations (particularly in the techno-corporate world) by providing practical examples. I’ve also attempted to personalize these blogs my incorporating my views, concerns, and past experiences that relate to the topics of blog discussion.

I’ve also made it imperative to always reread and revise my entire to ensure proper word usage, grammar, punctuation, and spelling. When examples are provided, I also try as much as possible to provide the links so my audience can investigate further.

Last, but no least, as mentioned previously, I’ve made changes from the provided template, original images, and added functionality. It also contains original visual content and the legitimate use (if applicable) of others content. Finally, there is significant change from the standard Blogger template, and additional logos, screenshots, illustrations, photography, and multimedia were included.

As an interesting side note, my employer, United Business, has now migrated from their traditional webmaster-controlled intranet to a wikisite that enables all employees to post up blogs, ask polling questions, chat, as well as a central information section related to Human Resource issues. Unfortunately, do to privacy and copyright issues, I am not authorized to show you this site (it's password-protected, anyway), but I was extremely surprised to find how popular blogging is becoming in the corporate sector... and it's now affecting me at the perfect time, thanks to PTC 605.

Project Promotional: kr3c's Advertising Campaign

I was working on an advertising campaign for a new company launch for kr3c. My job was to produce six advertisements in total, divided into three by medium type, and each medium type comprised of two choices. I therefore had two print 2-page magazine advertisements, two newspaper print advertisements, and two website banners for online publishing – all of which ran in popular publications that geared towards our technologically-driven clients.

Our company, kr3c, has much to offer, and the vast expanse of our capabilities was a challenge to describe briefly and succinctly in most of the advertisements, except for the 2-page magazines advertisements which provide comparatively greater room for more description of kr3c's services.

Kr3c would have:

• Environment-friendly services, including energy-efficient computer electronics. Beyond computer science, our company is also expanding to fields as energy, biotechnology, and global economics, even creating alternative nuclear reactors that produce clean power without waste or proliferation
• Financial business solutions that enable the efficient overseeing of company stock and other financial holdings. We also establish financial networking to find investors for clients; in other words, we get our clients enough revenue to venture in greater investments on a larger scale. Later stage investors and potential acquirers would follow.
• Mass computing capabilities and mathematical solutions for the biotechnical, medical, marketing, research/academic, and financial analysis sectors for the collection, process, and interpretation of statistical data
• A think tank, assisting our clients to come up with better services and/or new technology through the expert advice of our knowledgeable, experienced staff comprised of graduate-level professionals
• Provide software and web services to freshly growing, technically-driven companies
• Website building for starter companies or website enhancement for long-standing clients. Our expert graphic designers and web developers implement web 2.0 features to increase user-to-interface interactivity as: 1) Real-time communications, collaboration and media, 2) The context web: structured data for users, advertisers and publishers, and 3) The social web: social gestures driven through and around sites

Below are my advertisements. Take a browse:

Collaborating Online

It is becoming a common trend to have collaborative writing in today's online websites. In PTC 605, my classmates and I have worked together on the MSPTC wikipages by editing each other's work and have shared ideas for our final projects via chat, e-mail, and Moodle forums.

Of course, collaboration is better suited for certain communicative features, such as collaborating on the wikipages which gave every member of the classes the chance to review, critique, and edit each page to make the entire wikisite uniform and coherent as a whole. The process of collaboration is practical, and though there were no solid parameters established, there was a seemingly common trend that the only edits that should be made are ones that enhance or add information via multimedia (audio, video, flash, or graphics); no one deleted large chunks of the original information posted per page. This was not only determined by the list of comments posted per classmate (under the tab entitled "history"), but also there is a feature on the wikipage to assess what revisions were made by which member by the highlighted text.

In collaborating within chats, my classmates and I have collaborated at scheduled times to discuss the contents of our final projects. Though I find this to be a helpful tool, it seemed to serve as an inefficient method for my class at the beginning since many of us seemed to not do enough personal research to contribute ideas to the chat and inspire the development of good content for our projects. There was also a technical problem with the chat room that caused a delay in the typing and entering of dialogue within the chat interface; one of my classmates and I ended up logging in and out of the computer because our computers kept freezing; therefore, the immediacy of the chat was not as beneficial as I've experienced in other instant messaging services (such as yahoo IM).

The forum was a more helpful for me than the chat rooms since it recorded all the discussions of the class; I therefore had a permanent, typed "transcript" of all the ideas, questions, and answers about the final project. The only feature that I did not particularly like was the lack of organization within the forums. Multiple forums were posted by students, and it made it harder to find the information I really needed. Perhaps a way to improve this is by having only the professor be the one to create new forums.

Though collaboration was not required as part of the assignment, I found the all the online features above as well as Michele's wikipage (entitled "kr3cmarketing wiki") to be helpful. However, out of all these features, I find the wikipages to be most beneficial, efficient, and practical. I am currently working alongside with Yvonne on the advertising campaigns, while adapting ideas, styles, and logos to make my project uniform with the rest of the class's work.

Redesigning the Blog

As part of the redesign efforts of this blog, I included a personal banner at the top of my blog site to serve as an identifier for other viewers. I consider this banner to be only preliminary, eventually perfecting it as I develop more skill in the use of GIMP and other similar programs. However, what I have chosen so far was based on the overall color palette of the entire blog (which is primarily black, and degrees of blue, green, and purple), as well as the intent of my blog. The font style I chose is called "OCR A Extended", which I found appropriate for my technology-oriented blog as it reminds me of the digital numbers on a clock, weighing machine, or computer, and is also the same font used for many a computer program scripts.

I also made some changes to the template CSS to move it away from the "standard" Blogger templates that make your blog look like thousands of others online. This included changing font styles (bolding most of them for the sake of readability), changing colors of backgrounds, and changing font colors. I also decided to include a picture of myself in replacement of the NJIT logo to make it more personalized.

The colors I chose were mainly to enhance the readability of the blog and the overall look. I felt that bright (though not too bright, like neon) against a black background would give a more contemporary and professional look, without being a distraction and inappropriate as some other colors might (like neon pink).

As you can see below, the changes are fairly extensive. Once I become more accustomed to CSS, I hope to make changes to the lay-out as well in the near future. I find this latest version of the blog more favorable and pleasing to the eye, as compared to the standard gray, white, and crimson template that can easily be found on other blogs: