I'd be interested in hearing more about the audience/editor distinction that you make, Emily. In what ways do you, even as you're reading with an editor's eyes, still keep in mind the audience's interest, knowledge, and needs? What are some examples in which your understanding of the writer's audience influenced the editorial decisions you made?
My Response:
Reading Trenchmouth Taggart gave me a lot of experience balancing reader and editor. I must read as an editor, but it is also important to read as an audience as well. This way I can distinguish any questions or hard to interpret areas that an audience member may have. It is an important and learned balance of objective view versus entertainment view. I had to carefully examine parts of the text that would be potentially confusing for a reader or any parts of the text that didn't have a smooth text 'flow'. In this particular book, the author wrote in many broken, incomplete sentences. This, for me as an English major, was hard to accept since it is 'incorrect.' But through reading on, as an audience member, I was able to accept this style of writing and understand its importance to the overall theme of the book. And if there were any parts that were confusing due to this broken sentence structure, it was my job as the editor to figure out how to correct this problem without compromising the style of writing the author chose.
It was easy to become an audience member as I am a primary candidate. Since this book's setting is mainly in West Virginia and centers around WV event, as well as being published by a West Virginia Press, the primary audience will be residents of WV. But the array of ages that will potentially read this is wide. When I read this book, I just made sure that I could step back and understand what was being said as an audience member then applied my knowledge as an editor to make necessary changes. It is a hard balance to make, but it comes with time and I am fortunate to have experienced this aspect of editing so early in my soon-to-be career.
2 comments:
I have had a very similar experience editing journal articles for FIT publications. Not only am I an editor, but I am very much their audience. They are geared toward sport professionals, and I am a sport management major, so these are pulications that I've actually seen before. I think that this gives me an advantage when I am editing becuase I have some knowledge about what abbreviations and concepts need more explanation and which ones don't.
Very smart discussion, Emily -- that's the sort of analysis that would work very well in the reflective components for your web portfolio.
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