Editor and Writer: Roles and Relationship

May 2001

The growth of Web communications and the unique nature of the Internet have arguably challenged the nature of the editor-writer relationship. Traditionally a hierarchical relationship—with the editor serving as "boss"—Web publishing (particularly in specialized fields such as sustainable development) allows for increased collaboration between writers, editors and other staff.

The dynamic nature of the Web and the medium's relative youth, allow for the type of flexibility and experimentation in job descriptions and reporting relationships unlikely to be seen in more established media like newspapers and television.

Roles and relationships will change as organizations evolve. Agile organizations will produce better Web material, incur less operational stress and suffer less staff turnover.

Roles

At newspapers, magazines and indeed in the world of fiction, writers are writers. In the field of sustainable development and at other NGOs and research organizations, the people assigned with writing are usually researchers and analysts. The writing follows the substantive work of research, dialogue and analysis. This makes the writing role more challenging and the editing role more critical.

Editor and writer must collaborate and cooperate to ensure that the readers' needs are met, the integrity of the work is not compromised and that outputs are delivered effectively.

Precise roles and relationships will vary among organizations based on personalities, aptitudes and institutional experience. And, despite proposed role assignments, collaboration from beginning to end will always lead to a better product than strict adherence to job descriptions.

Selected writing roles

• Organization of thoughts and ideas: The writer is the person most intimately connected with the content so it is the writer's duty to produce and present an organized vision for the output.

• Identifying key messages: Based on intimate knowledge of content and audience, the writer must consider the key messages of the content. Communication of key messages should drive the writing process.

• Execution: Under the guidance of the editor, the organization's style manual and other resources, the writer produces text to express key messages and deliver new intellectual capital into the world's body of knowledge.

Selected editing roles

• Coordination/management: The editor ensures that the project's writer(s) is on time and on task and that the writer is supported. The editor also plays a key role in internal capacity building and the evolution and implementation of a style manual. In some organizations, the editor might be the Web manager; in others, the editor might be another person.

• Substantive editing: This sort of editing deals primarily with the content and message of the copy. When the outputs are highly technical or expert in nature, the person serving as editor should not be the only reader. Organizations can meet this challenge by having a sophisticated peer/external review process. The editor could be involved in the coordination of reviews and the implementation of their results. This level of editing also looks at structure and order.

• Stylistic editing: This level of editing focuses on matters specifically related to the actual writing such as clarity, flow, sentence length and word selection.

• Copy editing: This level of editing often includes stylistic editing but focuses on grammar, internal consistencies, headline writing and spelling.

• Image sourcing and management: When tables, charts, photos or other visuals are used, the editor might be the person sourcing them, arranging for permissions and writing caption text.

• Fact checking: As with substantive editing, the editor might not be the right person to confirm facts. However, the editor should ensure that a fact checking process was conducted.

• Proofreading: After all levels of editing have been completed, the text must be proofread one final time for overlooked errors.

• Approval: After proofreading, it is the editor who announces that an item is ready for publishing.

Relationship

• Communication and collaboration: It is critical that writer and editor retain an open line of communication. Although, technically, an editor might be the final authority on Web outputs, the quest for consensus will produce better material. The editor must be seen to have a meaningful role from the beginning of the process and not just the fixer of the final copy; the writer must be seen to have a meaningful role right to the end of the process, and not just be a content provider. One tool to promote effective collaboration is the "query letter." Rather than rewriting sections and deleting material on a first edit, an editor could ask the writer to answer questions about the text in the form of a query letter. The letter would guide the writer to make amendments based on thorough feedback.

• Coaching: The best editors are the ones who let writers write, make mistakes and learn by being part of the whole process. Editors need to work closely with individual writers on specific projects but also in terms of wider capacity building within an organization. Good editors should be available for colleagues as a writing resource and promote improved writing throughout the organization.

• Electronic editing versus the red pen: Each editor will have her or his own editing preferences. Some editors will rely on software that allows changes to be embedded and tracked so that the writer can see what has been done and respond accordingly. Other editors will rely on red pen comments on printed-out copies. Whatever method is chosen, it is important that writers are familiar with the editor's expectations in terms of the writer's response. With either method, pay close attention to version control (particularly when there are multiple readers and varying degrees of aptitude with electronic editing).

• Lines of authority: This will vary from organization to organization and arguably from project to project. A writer might be the final authority on content and the editor might be the final authority on structure and style. The key is to collaborate and communicate.

• Evaluations and post-mortems: Because each output presents unique challenges and might require unique solutions, having an evaluation session after each project is useful. The goal of such sessions should be to discuss strengths and weaknesses in process and execution and to seek ways to build upon the strengths and remedy the weaknesses for the next project.