Quote:
Originally Posted by ahi
Some of the things that make an editor:
- the fact that they aren't the person who wrote the text, and therefore do not subconsciously skip over errors on account of seeing what the text should say as opposed to what it does say
- strong, and I would argue necessarily systemic, knowledge of the English language, typography, and (depending on the type of editing) literature/composition/other works of the same genre
- strong interpersonal skills so they can get the author, who too often believes his writing far better and far more perfect than it is, to agree to necessary changes
These are just the most obvious things that come to my mind.
And while the career path may not be as clear-cut as for an engineer, there are certainly colleges (and universities?) that offer Editing courses in addition to all the other stuff an editor-to-be already would be taking.
- Ahi
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Most of the functions you're talking about could be performed easily with crowdsourcing. The
necessary changes would be, I assume from my own dealings with editors, to make the work more 'saleable' and 'marketable'. And again that's as much a subjective assessment of the quality and worthiness of the author's work as any other decision made during the pre-release of a book. I have never seen a course in all my academic life on editing, as it is done in the industry. Unless you count the many sociological courses that study nepotism and incest
