Hi there,
at the beginning of the month, there was a big party at my parents’. They like to collect reasons for parties and this rounds’ list looks as follows: my father’s 70th birthday, my mother’s retirement and their 40th wedding anniversary.
Because I’m too old for people to say: “Oh, you’ve grown a lot since I saw you last” (that’s why we have my nephew and niece ;-)), my job was talked about a lot.
I expect people to know what an editor does, I don’t expect them to know what I do as a technical editor for knitting patterns though. What I never expected was to be asked why I would say I’d read from the bible at church services when explaining my job.
In German, an editor is a “Lektorin” but this can mean a person reading aloud too but it isn’t an commonly used word. And this person I was taking to was only familiar with the latter meaning though. It took a while for me to notice that we were talking about two completely different things. It’s still weird :-)
But I thought, I’d talk about my job a bit this time:
So, you send me your pattern for editing. What do I do with it?
First of all, here is what I don’t do (I think that should go without saying but just to put it here):
* Publish it in my name
* Use your idea in a design
* Knit it without paying for it - and only after you released it anyway
* Talk about it and show it to all my friends
* Show it on social media before it is released
In short, all the information you send me (before, during or after a job) is treated confidential.
And here is what I do:
I check
* consistency: is this pattern consistent in itself? is it consistent with your other patterns?
* style: does it fit your style sheet if you have one?
* spelling, grammar and punctuation
* the wording: is it clear? is it unambiguous? is it understandable? even for a beginner or non-native speaker?
* all numbers: do they make sense? do they add up? do they lead to your final measurements? do you have enough stitches for what you’re instructing to do?
* measurements: do they fit with your numbers? did you include metric and imperial measurements? are the conversions correct? did you round numbers consistently?
* all stitch patterns: do they work? do they fit with the numbers? do chart and written instructions say the same thing? are they the same as the ones in your sample (photos)?
* layout: is it logical? Is it easy to follow? can the knitter find all the information they need at one glance?
* readability: is the font readable? is the font big enough?
* yarn: is it still available? did you copy the information correctly? Will the amount be right for the sizes?
* needles and notions: did you list all of them? did you list some not used?
* abbreviations: did you list all you used? did you list some not used? Are the explanations sufficient and clear?
* Finishing instructions: did you include everything (sewing on buttons, closing seams etc)?
It’s a lot and I bet there is more because I leave no stone unturned. And if you worked with me before, you probably experienced this first hand :-)
I mark everything I think you should check again. Most of the time I put a comment too to explain why I marked it. I might put comments on things I really like to let you know as well. Sometimes you’ll get suggestions or recommendations how you could change something to improve it.
Usually, I work in the pdf version of your pattern.
If you’re an experienced designer and we have a trusting relationship, I’m happy to work in a word/pages version as well.
This would mean I could change typos, inconsistencies with your style sheet or clearly wrong numbers (not rounded or correctly etc) for you. However, I won’t ever change anything which isn’t clearly an error.
Do you have any questions I didn’t answer? Feel free to ask in the comments.
I’m always happy to talk about my job :-)
Talk soon,
Frauke xx