Re: Independent Editors

[Christi Carew <techwriter -at- yourhead -dot- com>]

>From: "Anthony Markatos" <tonymar -at- hotmail -dot- com>
>Date: Sat, 25 Sep 1999 11:22:01 PDT

>I recently reviewed the STC independent contractor salary survey.  It says
>that the most typical task performed by independents is editing.  Who is
>going to pay big bucks ($40 - 50 dollars/hour or more)to do administrative
>assistant work?  (That is who typically edits my work.)
>
>Am I missing something: a more sophisticated service that editors provide?
>
>I seek responses for career planning purposes.  All responses appreciated.

Hi...

While I used to think that way, at my last job I was amazed at how useful a
real editor can be. First, when there are multiple writers in a department,
a single editor (or group of editors) can help keep usage consistent. Usage
of company style and general style things.
But also, good editors are generally very detail oriented and very
knowledgable about the english language. I have learned so much from having
an editor.
I think the best editors are ones that have done writing at some point.
An admin will not usually know grammar rules, rules of sentence structure,
and other things. Editor can also help with structure of a document (early
on in the life cycle). Those are things an admin can't do.
If all you need is a glorified spell-checker, the admin might do (but not
always even in that case).
I'm a little concerned myself right now because i am the only writer at my
job. My manager is not as good at editing as a I am. So I'm not sure what
to do about editing. I might be looking into a contract editor.
Unfortunately, I'm not describing it well right now. But there is just so
much more that goes into editing than most people realize.


Christi Carew
Technical Writer
Sage Instruments
Freedom, CA 95019
www.sageinst.com