Editors

They are a fascinating lot. And one to which those of us who spend a great deal of time trying to put together a minimum of two sentences together that come close to being coherent owe much. These special brand of communicators devote their time to making sense of our original drafts in order that  readers - that elusive lot - may enjoy and/or make sense of what we have attempted to compose. We writers know what we want to say. The trick comes in trying to put down on paper our thoughts or vision in a style that will be readable and understandable to others. Editors strive to make that happen.

Editors, to me, have to be the ultimate readers. Any one that devotes their professional time to pouring through the prose of others to determine whether it is worthy of public consumption has got to love reading. Good stuff. Bad stuff. They read it all. And they determine if it is promising enough to turn into something to be made available to the public. That is a skill I call awesome. In my time I have edited the works of others, including many papers by students, so I can personally attest to the skills of professional editors. What I lack, they have. Writers are often called "wordsmiths," but that title actually belongs to editors.

Many writers, myself included, view themselves as being behind-the-scene people. We prefer giving center stage to our words.  This is even more true of editors as they prefer turning over the spotlight to the words of others. No only do they have to have a broad understanding of language, but they need to be able to use that language in a style reflective of others. Their super power, as it were, is found in this rare ability to communicate in a way that showcases the best of others' intent. Effective communication, to editors, is helping writers communicate as well as they can. So, to all editors everywhere, thank you for working so hard to trying to make us writers look good.