Editorial Midwive Q&A

Hi Editorial Midwives,

I hope that you had a fabulous weekend and great holiday (for those in the US). I wanted to touch base because I've received some questions about how much to edit, or not, the assignments from your correspondents. This will in large part, depend on what your correspondent needs, but I want to give a few suggestions and guidelines:

Question: How should I send my edits to my Correspondent? Should I use track changes?
Answer: You should use whatever works best for you and for your Correspondent. She may or may not be familiar with the track changes tool, so its best to communicate with her beforehand about what works best.

Question: To what extent should I be editing my Correspondents document? Should I correct every grammar and spelling mistake, offer suggestions for rebuilding paragraphs, etc?
Answer:

• The first thing to remember is that you want to conserve and hone your correspondent's authentic voice. To this end, you will probably be making suggestions on both content and development, as well as technical aspect such as spelling and grammar. For example, if your correspondent has a great idea, but the information needs to be better organized to get her thoughts across, you could suggest different paragraph breaks, putting in connecting sentences, or suggesting ways to make her introductory paragraph stronger. You can also make suggestions on ways to make her assignment more impactful, such as including more personal anecdotes, less numbers, or more quotes. If the concept is well organized, but the spelling or grammar mistakes are getting in the way for the reader, you can also make suggestions for changes.


• The second thing to remember, is that with both content and technical (grammar, spelling, etc) editing, you are making suggestions, which your correspondent can or can choose not to accept. It is good to remind her of this!

Remember to ask your Correspondent what she needs from you as an editor. She may or may not want you to suggest changes to content, or she may specifically want help on her grammar.

If you have any other questions at all about editing assignments, please don't hesitate to contact Scott or myself.

Kind regards,

Rachael