The Best Academic Preparation for an Editorial Career

The Best Academic Preparation for an Editorial Career The Best Academic Preparation for an Editorial Career The Best Academic Preparation for an Editorial Career By Mark Nichol I was painfully amused to find in a recent job listing the perpetuation of the absurd notion that a degree in English or literature, for God’s sake is the ideal preparation for work as a writer or editor. The listing required candidates to have a degree in English or literature. Now, there can be some merit in having earned an English degree, but English majors do not necessary master composition, much less the finer points of grammar, syntax, usage, punctuation, style, and the other components of writing, and revision of assigned papers is of little use in acquiring editing skills. I recall taking an English course in which the instructor spent most of every class period reading aloud word by word a manuscript he had written about grammar and asking students to identify the part of speech of every word. At the end of the term, despite this intensive analysis, I was no more knowledgeable about grammar than I had been at the beginning of the course. And few English majors endure this type of experience. Nevertheless, they do receive some instruction in writing, but it is mostly holistic – how to evaluate an argument’s logic and validity and how to organize one’s thoughts in writing. But little guidance is offered in the subtler qualities I listed above. A literature degree is even less useful; its basis is literary criticism, and though students write essays and term papers and theses, the focus is on dissecting the themes of literary works, not on developing coherence and clarity and conciseness. English and literature courses do not teach one how to choose just the right word. They do not assist one in structuring strong, active sentences with specific nouns and vivid verbs. They do not help one build narratives. In short, though some English and literature majors may develop into great writers and/or editors, an English or literature major is of little use to would-be masters of the language. On a related note, I am puzzled when I see job listings that require a degree in, say, economics or math. I’m lazy about laissez-faire, and I wouldn’t know a cosine from a stop sign. But I’ve edited scholarly books and textbooks in both subjects. I’ve worked on several science books, too, though I have only the gleanings of lifelong learning, rather than a degree in biology or physics or astronomy, to support me. What academic preparation, then, should students and employers value? Well, how about theater arts? That’s the degree I earned, and I’ve been gainfully employed in publishing and journalism since I retired from the stage more than a quarter century ago, soon after collecting that inestimably valuable diploma. (Trust me, though; I’ve experienced plenty of drama not to mention farce and tragedy in editorial working environments.) But, seriously, folks, what prepared me for my career was, first, a natural facility for writing a foundation that supported the edifice of practical experience. Even though I had no interest in journalism, I walked into my college’s student-newspaper office after my first day of classes and never looked back. I learned to tell a story writing is, at its fundamental level, nothing else than storytelling producing over a hundred articles, reviews, and editorials, and editing hundreds more as I took on steadily increasing responsibility. (And when I did take journalism courses, when students were assigned to write articles, I handed in pieces I had already written for the school paper.) Based on my experience, if there’s any degree employers should value when hiring for a writing or editing job, it’s one in journalism, or mass communication. But I didn’t earn one, and I know people who did earn one who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a keyboard. The most useful predictor of a job candidate’s ability is how well he or she writes on an assigned topic or edits a brief manuscript provided as part of the application process. Possession of a certain degree, by comparison no matter where it was earned is nearly useless. (And job history isn’t much more pertinent but that’s another topic altogether.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Inquire vs EnquireDifference between "Pressing" and "Ironing"20 Ways to Laugh

Discover The Cuban Swimmer, a Play by Milcha Sanchez-Scott

Discover The Cuban Swimmer, a Play by Milcha Sanchez-Scott The Cuban Swimmer is a one-act family drama with spiritual and surrealistic overtones by the American playwright  Milcha  Sanchez-Scott. This experimental play can be a creative challenge to stage because of its unusual setting and bilingual script. But it also presents actors and directors with an opportunity to explore identity and relationships in modern California culture. Synopsis As the play begins, 19-year-old Margarita Suarez is swimming from Long Beach to Catalina Island. Her Cuban-American family follows along in a boat. Throughout the competition (the Wrigley Invitational Women’s Swim), her father coaches, her brother cracks jokes to hide his jealousy, her mother frets, and her grandmother yells at the news helicopters. All the while, Margarita pushes herself onward. She battles the currents, the oil slicks, the exhaustion, and the family’s constant distractions. Most of all, she battles herself. Theme Most of the dialogue within â€Å"The Cuban Swimmer† is written in English. Some of the lines, however, are delivered in Spanish. The grandmother, in particular, speaks mostly in her native tongue. The switching back and forth between the two languages exemplifies the two worlds which Margarita belongs to, the Latino and the American. As she struggles to win the competition, Margarita tries to fulfill the expectations of her father as well as the crass American media (the news anchormen and the television viewers). However, by the play’s end, when she drifts beneath the surface when her family and the newscasters believe that she has drowned, Margarita separates herself from all outside influences. She discovers who she is, and she saves her life (and wins the race) independently. By almost losing herself in the ocean, she discovers who she truly is. The themes of cultural identity, especially Latino culture in Southern California, are common in all of Sanchez-Scotts works. As she told an interviewer in 1989: My parents came to California to settle, and the Chicano culture there was so different to me, very, very different from Mexico or where I came from [in Colombia]. Yet there were similarities: we spoke the same language; we had the same skin color; we had the same interaction with culture. Staging  Challenges As mentioned in the overview, there are many complicated, almost cinematic elements within  Sanchez-Scott’s The Cuban Swimmer. The main character is â€Å"swimming† the entire time. How would you, as a director, portray this action on stage?Margarita’s family puts along on a boat. How would you convey this? With a set? Pantomime?Helicopters and news commentators â€Å"interfere† with the characters. In what ways could sound effects enhance or sully the play? The Playwright Milcha  Sanchez-Scott was born in Bali, Indonesia, in 1953, to a Colombian-Mexican father and an Indonesian-Chinese mother. Her father, a botanist, later took the family to Mexico and Great Britain before settling in San Diego when  Sanchez-Scott was 14. After attending the University of California-San Diego, where she majored in drama, Sanchez-Scott moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. Frustrated by a dearth of roles for Hispanic and Chicano actors, she turned to playwriting, and in 1980 she published her first play, Latina. Sanchez-Scott followed the success of Latina with several other plays in the 1980s. The Cuban Swimmer was first performed in 1984 with another one-act play of hers, Dog Lady. Roosters followed in 1987 and Stone Wedding in 1988. In the 1990s,  Milcha  Sanchez-Scott largely withdrew from the public eye, and little is known of her in recent years. Sources Bouknight, Jon. Language as a Cure: An Interview with Milcha Sanchez-Scott. Latin American Theatre Review, Spring 1990.Mitgang, Herbert. Theater: Dog Lady and Swimmer. The New York Times, 10 May 1984.