In this post, we discuss Professional Editing, a course students typically take their sophomore year. In the class, students learn about the editing profession and practice editing many types of documents, both for publishing houses and business organizations. Professor Carrington teaches the course, and here he provides some insights into what students do in Professional Editing.
1. What kind of editing is done in Professional Editing?
In Professional Editing, we do copyediting and comprehensive editing. In copyediting, we make changes mainly on correctness by editing for grammar, punctuation, consistency, and accuracy. In comprehensive editing, we evaluate the document’s purpose and based on good principle, edit the document to help it accomplish that purpose. This editing addresses sentence structure, organization, quality of content, plot, and other higher-level issues.
2. Why do we teach this course?
We teach this course because our students often work as either full-time editors, or editing is an important part of their careers as writers. We want our students to be able to evaluate a document’s effectiveness and address its needs while communicating those changes in an authoritative, God-honoring way. The relationship between writers and editors can be tricky, but we see it as an opportunity to both improve a document and show Christ-like grace and kindness to a writer.
3. What is the day-to-day like in the classroom?
Students will often edit sentences, paragraphs, or short passages before class. They then compare their editing decisions with other classmates, identify questions, and ask me (the Professor). As a class, we work through issues together and decide when changes are necessary and how to go about those changes. Students have the opportunity to edit a lot of different documents, a practice that requires them to evaluate the purpose of the text, the needs of the audience, and the condition of the current manuscript.
4. What projects do students complete in this course?
Students edit many documents, but currently, the four major assignments are as follows:
- An editing exam that assesses a student’s ability to copyedit problematic sentences and passages.
- A series of blog posts that students edit to accomplish an organizational purpose and address user needs.
- A chapter in a fiction manuscript where students edit to create an effective first chapter of a novel.
- A chapter in a non-fiction manuscript where students both copyedit and edit comprehensively.
These assignments are meant to expose students to editing in both professional organizations and publishing houses.
5. What kind of writers would enjoy this kind of work?
The students who love editing are typically detail oriented and love to help other writers accomplish their goals. They understand good writing principles and will tactfully suggest alternatives when they feel the writer can better convey a point. Editing is not always glamorous, but students who enjoy working alongside others to accomplish a shared goal with enjoy the practice.
Want to see what our students write, edit, and design? See some work from our students on our student portfolio page.
