How It Works
By
Carl Sessions Stepp
Carl Sessions Stepp (cstepp@umd.edu) began writing for his hometown paper, the Marlboro Herald-Advocate in Bennettsville, South Carolina, in 1963, after his freshman year in high school. He studied journalism at the University of South Carolina, where he edited The Gamecock. After college, he worked for the St. Petersburg Times and the Charlotte Observer before becoming the first national editor at USA Today in 1982. In 1983, he joined the University of Maryland journalism faculty full time. In the ensuing 30 years, he also has served as senior editor and book reviewer for AJR, writing dozens of pieces. He has been a visiting writing and editing coach for news organizations in more than 30 states.
Call it coaching, collaboration or just plain old-fashioned editing. Regardless of the phraseology, the idea is that editors and writers should work together through the stages of a writing project, spending more time together during the early phases in order to save time on deadline. Typically, they employ short, focused conversations, each lasting only a few minutes, at several points along the way: at the assignment stage, during the reporting, before the writing, after the first draft, during editing. The editor generally asks questions, trying to help the writer pinpoint problems and opportunities as early as possible. "This process creates confidence and craft," Roy Peter Clark and Don Fry write in their book, "Coaching Writers." "The reporters come to believe in the ability of the editor to help them and in their own ability to learn new techniques and new ways of seeing." – C.S.S. ###
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