Sabrina Darnowsky

When I was in high school, I took an excellent advanced composition class. We diagrammed sentences and explored the intricacies of grammar. I got good grades and thought I knew my stuff.

After my son was born, I wanted to do some freelance editing from home. I offered my services to a publisher who asked me to take an editing test. I caught all the basic errors, but missed a few of the finer details, as well as some of the more substantive issues related to the content itself. The publisher spent a generous amount of time pointing out where I needed to improve, suggested that I study up on the Chicago Manual of Style, and wished me well. I learned a lot from her feedback and thought surely now I knew my stuff.

After my son started kindergarten, I decided to pursue a career in software documentation. At that time, it was a new field. Most technical writing had previously been done by programmers who had little interest in the craft. I was fortunate enough to be mentored by a talented woman who owned her own technical writing company, and from her I learned my trade. As I worked for various companies over the years, I benefited from in-house editorial reviews as well as assessments of my work through professional writing competitions, where I won more than a dozen awards. Surely now I knew my stuff.

More recently I have undertaken projects that required me to flex writing muscles I had never exercised before, exploring new genres and techniques. My latest book, Sowing the Seed of Truth: Orthodox Quaker Sermons of Murray Shipley (1873-1876), is currently going through editorial review at Friends United Press. I particularly appreciate my editor’s nudges to double-check certain details, to elaborate on statements that just skimmed the surface, and to clarify any ambiguities. The book is better for her labor.

The best kind of editing is the type that teaches you, that helps you see things that you were too close to the work to recognize, and that challenges you to grow as a writer. It’s more than just proofreading. It’s about encouraging you become the author that your readers deserve.

So do I know my stuff now? Certainly more than I did in the past, but I’m still learning, and I’m sure I’ll continue to learn in the future. I am grateful to the editors who helped me along the way.