Anyone Can Write and Edit

I’ve been giving a meager amount of power at my job: Hiring the new part-time copy editor is all me. (OK, the person still has to be approved by the EIC, but it’s something.) Now I see why hiring someone takes so long. About 1 of every 5 people is actually qualified to interview for the job.

One of the applicants writes in her cover letter that she has no editorial experience. Another woman’s previous experience was working at two different Denny’s. I just don’t understand why people with no skills are applying to these jobs when there are about a million communications grads who want them. You don’t see me at the corner diner trying to pick up a late shift waitressing. I know I can’t carry a huge tray and be polite to customers, so I don’t try to get those jobs.

This brings me to a huge pet peeve of mine. It seems everyone in life thinks they can write. Whenever someone asks what I do, and I say, “journalism,” that person almost always tells me that he or she has always wanted to write, too. Sometimes a book, sometimes short stories, but they all want to write. This doesn’t happen in any other profession. I don’t go up to surgeons and say, “Oh yes, I have always wanted to perform an appendectomy. I didn’t attend medical school or have any training whatsoever, but it has always been an interest of mine.”

Take my dentist. When he found out my profession, he immediately showed me his column in the local newspaper and declared that we were both writers. I clean my cat’s teeth. Does that make us both dentists?