Irksome

Gahh...Editors

So, as you may or may not know, I am a writer for the Breeze, a student-run newspaper at James Madison University.  I recently ran a story on an emerging HIV/AIDS Alliance on-campus.  I spent several days interviewing and researching in preparation for the final edit of the story.  I spent countless hours contacting the right sources and filtering out the appropriate information.  I kept in very close contact with my editors to ensure that what I was putting together was to their specifications.  I found a compelling angle, stuffed it with facts, and wrote it brilliantly.  I mean, this was some front page work they were dealing with here. 

So, in anticipation of the article coming out, I told all of my friends to grab an issue and look for my article, that it would be some good stuff and a fun read during class.  So, Tuesday morning, I grab an article, as I always do, but this time was different.  I was finally looking for my work on the front page.  Instead, I found "my" article pushed away in a corner, edited to a mere fraction of my previous writing.  The article lacked any sort of flow and little to no transition between ideas.  My editors had cut so much out in order to fit my article to the designated page that I couldn't even tell that it was mine.  I had lost all sense of ownership to the piece, it was now a product of poor editing and bad choices.  Furthermore, I felt awful towards those who I had written the article about.  I informed them that I would be putting my best into the article, and that they deserved nothing less.  These are good people, who truly believe in what they do, and I wanted to portray that in my article.

Its a tough position to be in however, because you can't really question the editor.  Their word is final, and there is no way around it.  Recently, however, I have been entertaining the idea of becoming an editor myself.  I would like to think that I would mend this fundamental error in the Breeze's editing staff, but it is hard to say.  I realize that the position puts you in a position of relative responsibility and that the integrity of some stories may have to be sacrficed for the overall flow of the paper, it's just unfortunate that it had to be mine. 

As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit.

Emmanuel Tenny