Victoria Faraon
So, originally, we were supposed to go into cold reads, but as I’ve come to learn during my time with SLI, sometimes, things don’t go according to plan. This is not to say that SLI is at fault by any means, but more so that these things generally happen within the publishing world! Sometimes deadlines are missed or pushed back, and you have to be flexible when working with a team. In this case, when I contacted Olivia about receiving half of the articles, she told me that some of our readers were still working through their essays. Therefore, I have not yet received all the articles needed to complete the cold read.
Instead, Olivia asked if I could work on a separate article in the issue that was originally assigned to a different editor. So I took that on instead! Much like other essays I’ve encountered at SLI, I adjusted the citations as needed. My queries were centered on clarity and conciseness, with most of my questions asking what the author meant to communicate. Most of the time, the sentence’s “point” or main argument can be lost within the abundance of dependent clauses, lists, and examples embedded in the sentence. Therefore, with each “confusing sentence,” I try to pinpoint what is being said grammatically, meaning which clause or phrase is attributed to what, and how that impacts the overarching message of the sentence. Usually, this tends to stray away from what I think the author meant to say instead. Therefore, I offer suggestions on how they can adjust their original sentence to parallel their sentiment. I find those queries to be the most “rewarding,” as in, the most helpful given my lack of content-wise knowledge surrounding the subject (in comparison to our editors who are experts in this particular field).
As far as I am aware, this was my last article to edit for SLI before we enter cold reads. I’m anticipating completing cold reads in the semester’s final two weeks, and we will go to press a little later than expected. Regardless, I’m excited for what the end of my internship has in store for me. This truly has been a rewarding experience and has reinforced my skills in editing tenfold!
