Editor and co-founder Matthew Bennett designed a new specialization in developmental editing for the University of Washington. This is an intense course of study and unique among American university editing programs. Enrollment is currently open for the fall session.
The editing profession has evolved, for good or ill, in the last fifty years. The publishing industry has consolidated into fewer houses, now known as the Big Five +1 (that plus one represents the massive yet hybrid presence of Amazon). One result of this is the increase in freelance editors and the decrease in apprenticeships, the traditional path for learning developmental editing.
This course has passed through several important stages of design, including collaboration with senior learning designer Anne Tuominen. Matthew drew the course philosophy and material from his own experience writing and dev editing for publication. Teaching in the editing certificate program at UW and having mentored several editors through the Northwest Editors Guild, he crafted a fun yet challenging curriculum from industry books and articles.
The result is a course that is divided into three parts in sequence: introduction to dev editing, editing by genre, and building an editing career. In the introduction, student editors learn about the dev editing philosophy, techniques, and tools. They next review important dev editing services for various genres, such as writing query letters for the selling of novels. Finally, the course includes several weeks of career development like networking and portfolio building.
Watch the video below for a short introduction to the course.
This specialization is designed for editors who want to freelance or work in-house, everything from journalism to corporate communications to book publishing (fiction, nonfiction, and academic). The course covers a ton of old and new editing and writing literature. Matthew also includes a peek behind the curtain, recording the development of his own short story with the help of editor David Downing.
There are several instructional videos as well as interviews with six dev editors about their personal histories, ideas, and careers. These include editors such as Ingrid Emerick, founder of Girl Friday Productions, and Marcus Green, of the South Seattle Emerald, Seattle Times, and the new Hinton Publishing.
The student might imagine this course as an apprenticeship toward the craft of famous editors like Maxwell Perkins, Gordon Lish, and Gertrude Stein. Matthew is excited to teach this new specialization and meet a fresh crop of student editors in autumn. Check out the University of Washington website for more information about writing and editing programs.