To be a section editor
July 21, 2005
I know that a lot of you have been asking about the job - just what does it mean to be a section editor? What are the responsibilities, the rewards, the challenges and the excitements? This is a huge question, and can really only be answered by being thrown into the position and learning as you go. However, the job can broadly be defined as having three parts: editing articles, managing people, and generating ideas.
The first one is not so much the technical, nitty-gritty grammar editing (that is for the copy guys), but rather making sure the article flows, the ideas are coherent, and the piece is the right length (which basically means short). You will probably have to take the knife to a number of pieces, but I encourage you to be as ruthless as possible.
The second part, managing people, is all about helping your writers have a great, educational experience while eliciting from them the best writing they can possibly do. Regular meetings, one-on-one sessions, and using your resources - professionals we bring in and others who have been around the hill for awhile are all good places to go when you’ve got a question.
The third part is always what I had the most fun doing last year. As section editors, you have the chance to cultivate a voice and guide your section in whatever creative way you see fit. Of course it must fit into our over-arching goals as a publication, but within that framework there is a great degree of flexibility. I encourage you to start thinking now about the sort of things you want to cover, the angles that you want to take, the stories you want to tell. Be assertive, and don’t be afraid to help your writers by giving them direction and specific stories that you want them to cover.
Now you go...
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