HOW TO GET THERE
Typical pathway
A typical Canadian secondary-school pathway into editing is to finish high school with strong English, writing, reading, and communication skills. Many students then take college or university studies in English, journalism, communications, publishing, or a related field, though some employers may accept equivalent experience. Early experience often comes from school newspapers, blogs, yearbooks, internships, co-op placements, freelance writing, or entry-level editorial or production work. Because editors may specialize by subject or publication type, students often build knowledge in a topic area and develop careful attention to detail, clear writing, and teamwork.
THE WORK
What you may do
Legacy duties
- Evaluate suitability of manuscripts, articles, news copy and wire service dispatches for publication, broadcast or electronic media and recommend or make changes in content, style and organization
- Read and edit copy to be published or broadcast to detect and correct errors in spelling, grammar and syntax, and shorten or lengthen copy as space or time requires
- Confer with authors, staff writers, reporters and others regarding revisions to copy
- Plan and implement layout or format of copy according to space or time allocations and significance of copy
- Plan and co-ordinate activities of staff and assure production deadlines are met
- Plan coverage of upcoming events and assign work accordingly
- Write or prepare introductions, marketing and promotional materials, biographical notes, indexes and other text
- May negotiate royalties with authors and arrange for payment of freelance staff.
- Editors may specialize in a particular subject area, such as news, sports or features, or in a particular type of publication, such as books, magazines, newspapers or manuals.
SKILLS TO BUILD
Skills used in this Career
PublicationsResearchingWriting