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| SFReader Forums > Book, Magazine, and eZine Publishers > Editor's Roundtable > A question for all the editors | Forum Quick Jump
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Jaqhama
Adventurer
      
Date Joined Oct 2007
Total Posts : 303
| Posted 5/10/2008 1:49 PM (GMT -4) |   | | I've been wondering about this for a while now and as most of you have probably realised I'm not afraid to voice my questions in the public forum.
My question is this...
How many of the editors of magazines and webzines here have any kind of certificate, diploma or paperwork from a university, tech college, or privatly run editing company that states they have studied and achived a reconisable level of competency in the field of editing and editor?
My partner Lin did an editing course ten years ago. She is the first to admit that her editing skills need a lot of polishing because she never used those skills after she completed the course.
It got me wondering how many editors here have actually completed a verifiable course themselves?
You can read some of my stories here:
Swamp Story. Down South. Florida Haze.Wild Justice...
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Nicholas
Adept
Date Joined Jun 2006
Total Posts : 909
| Posted 5/10/2008 5:11 PM (GMT -4) | | | | |
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Lyn
Adopt
Date Joined Sep 2007
Total Posts : 1278
| Posted 5/10/2008 5:59 PM (GMT -4) | | | | |
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darkbow
Rabbit lord
Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1470
| Posted 5/11/2008 4:17 AM (GMT -4) | | The title "editor" is a bit of a misnomer. I am a college-educated and professional editor (for 16 years), but lots of editors do things besides actually edit copy. I have to edit and design quite often in my day job, but that's not always been the case, and many editors spend their work time doing things like managing staff, coming up with story ideas, working with writers on improving their craft, going to meetings, etc. etc.
An editor of a fiction publication doesn't necessarily have to be good at spelling and grammar and punctuation, but it could definitely help, and I'd recommend they have someone on staff who knows that stuff. Besides, most people who read a lot are going to pick up some of those skills naturally. Even if they might not be able to tell you the difference between an adverb and an adjective, they still "know" in their head.
"Beneath a Persian Sun" upcoming in Carnivah House's "Infinity Swords" anthology
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Jaqhama
Adventurer
Date Joined Oct 2007
Total Posts : 303
| Posted 5/13/2008 2:05 AM (GMT -4) | |
crystalwizard said...I can't 'conjugate' sentences. I was terminally bored during that part of high school english and read Tolkien instead. I have something better than a degree. I've got Google and the ability to go search on how to deal with sentence structure if I don't know it. I have people to go to as well. People who know when to use a semi-colon and why. I read. A lot. And know how to make my computer read text outloud so I can hear where the problems are that I don't see. All the degrees in the world don't make up for hands-on experience. Jason: You're doing the editor's job, that makes you an editor. It doesn't make you a famous editor, but it DOES make you an editor.
So your computer talks to you huh?
Listen I know a specialist...I'm sure he can help. 
I appreciate all the honest answers to my question.
I'm not judging anyone here on their abilities as an editor. I was just curious who had actually done an editing course is all.
I don't want to split infinitives or anything. 
You can read some of my stories here: Swamp Story. Down South. Florida Haze.Wild Justice...
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MysticWino
anarchist fringe monkey boddhisatva
Date Joined May 2007
Total Posts : 1527
| Posted 5/13/2008 4:12 PM (GMT -4) | | Well, since you asked . . .
2003 Bachelor of Arts in English
2006 Master of Arts in English (specializing in poetry & poetics)
2004-2006 Writing Tutor: Learning Center, University of Illinois at Springfield
1997-Present founding editor of [on hiatus due to cashlow] Prism Quarterly
2000-Present [skipping 2005] President: Poets & Writers Literary Forum of Springfield, Illinois
2006-Present Editor: Illinois State Museum
2004-2006 Publisher, Copyeditor, etc. of Pitch-Black LLC [defunct]
Author of four novels and five in-progress
Associate Copyeditor: Flashing Swords
Author of hundreds of poems, dozens of stories, articles, essays, etc.
Also author of "Fatefist at Torkas Nahl" in RotS
All that aside, I agree with the above opinions that experience trumps education, especially for those who find themselves with a diploma and realize that they did not experience their own education because they were misled into setting goals related to GPAs and other such rubbish instead of gaining true understanding, skills, and experience (this is a pet grudge I have against our commercialized institutes of higher learning and in no way intended to disparage any individual's education or experience of said system).
"The schizophrenic is drowning in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight." --Joseph Campbell | | Back to Top | | |
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