The profession of an editor is in demand in media, book publishers, corporate environment and TV studios, news portals and radio stations — in short, wherever content is created and released.
The editor is responsible for the text content in offline and online projects. It depends on them whether the material will be released on time and how high-quality it will be.
The main task of the editor is to improve the readability of the text, preserving the author’s style and intent. Unlike a proofreader, which eliminates grammatical and spelling errors, the editor works with the overall meaning of the text: corrects stylistic and logical flaws, verifies the validity of facts and, if necessary, reduces or supplements the content.
In addition to working with the text, the duties of the editor include a number of managerial tasks. They search for new topics and content formats, selects authors, draws up technical tasks and monitors their compliance, interacts with specialists from related departments: designers, illustrators, proofreaders, layout designers, etc.
The duties of an editor vary depending on the specialisation and requirements of the employer, but these basic skills that will be useful to any editor:
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High level of language proficiency — absolute literacy and a sense of language — a must have for the editor. Moreover, they need not only to correct all errors, typos and clerical errors, but also to follow the style and logic of the narrative, to make complex things understandable to the average person;
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Understanding the specifics of different content formats — news articles in the media, columns in glossy magazines, posts in corporate social networks — content for different platforms differs in both design and content. To create materials that readers will definitely like, you need to clearly understand the interests of the audience and the peculiarities of the perception of content on different platforms;
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The ability to check facts. Before publishing the material, it is necessary to verify the validity of each fact, figure and conclusion. You definitely can’t do without meticulousness and analytical skills here;
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The ability to find a balance between the opinion of the editor and the author’s vision — when working with other people’s materials, it is important not to overdo it and not edit what can not be edited. The task of the editor is to polish the text where necessary, and not to rewrite everything in their own way.
However, success in the profession largely depends on the personality and temperament of the specialist. These are the qualities that will be useful:
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Mindfulness — when working with large amounts of information, the eye gets blurred quickly, and the brain gets tired. The specialist needs to notice the smallest details and quickly restore concentration so as not to miss errors and inaccuracies in the texts;
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Curiosity — you will regularly encounter concepts and phenomena that are new to you, even in a narrow niche. And a broad outlook and healthy curiosity will help you to understand unfamiliar topics easier and faster;
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Multitasking — the editor’s working day is busy: you need to write, proofread, negotiate, manage and control. You will have to keep a lot of information in your head and solve a bunch of important issues at the same time;
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Striving for leadership — even in a junior position, you will be assigned to monitor the work of authors, and as you grow professionally, there will only be more managerial tasks. That’s where leadership ambitions come in handy.
Would you be interested in becoming an editor?
This post is an eye-opener. Balancing language proficiency, fact-checking, and managerial skills. Very cool job