What Makes a Good Editor?

Whether you’re looking to engage one or become one, it’s a crucial question: What makes a good editor?

There’s probably more to it than you imagine. It’s not just correcting the odd typo and dealing with rogue apostrophes. By the end of this post, we hope you’ll have a better idea of what to look for in an editor, what to develop in yourself, and gain a deeper appreciation for the work of these behind-the-scenes professionals.

17 Top Qualities of a Good Editor

First, we should address the fact that the term editor can cover a variety of different types of editing jobs:

• Developmental editing: dealing with big-picture elements.
• Line editing: improving the flow and quality of writing.
• Copy editing: improving the mechanical elements of writing and ensuring clarity.
• Proofreading: a final check on the details and consistency.

If you would like to take a look or refresh your memory, we examined the differences between these jobs in an earlier post.

To be a good editor – of any description – you need a diverse set of qualities. We’ve come up with seventeen of them (we’ve numbered them to keep count, not to suggest any ranking):

1. Independence

Many editors work as freelancers. This involves not only the responsibility to seek out work but also to complete that work to the necessary standard – and on time (see below) – without supervision.

You need to be your own project manager, juggling your diary and ensuring that you have the necessary skills and tools to perform the tasks you’ve taken on.

2. Time Management Skills

Meeting deadlines is crucial in the editing process. Whether you’re proofreading a student’s dissertation or copy editing a novel for a publisher, your client will rely on having the work done by a certain date to meet deadlines of their own.

If you’re a freelancer, the ability to effectively manage your time is vital. This involves monitoring how long it takes you to complete a particular type of project, so you can avoid taking on work that you can’t finish on time or to a high standard. Creating checklists or using specialist software can help.

3. Strong Communication Skills

Editors may work independently, but they don’t work in isolation.

No matter what type of editing you’re doing, it usually involves working on documents written by authors for publishers. The needs of these groups may differ, and terminology common within one group may not be understood by the other.

As an editor, you need to ensure that both groups can understand your feedback and suggestions. With strong communication skills, you’ll be able to adapt accordingly.

4. Adaptability

On the subject of adapting, good editors need to be flexible in their approach to editing to fit the needs of various genres, styles, and target audiences. Proofreading a physics PhD thesis, for example, will require a different editorial approach than for a YA novel.

If you don’t specialize in one area, you’ll need to be able to switch styles and tones or adapt to different fields of expertise between jobs to meet the brief on every occasion.

5. Familiarity with Style Guides

If you’re new to this, you may have assumed that there was a straightforward set of rules about punctuation, grammar, spelling, etc. However, so much of the English language is a matter of preference – otherwise known as style.

Familiarity with the major style guides such as AP, MLA, Chicago, or APA will enable you to maintain consistency within a document in line with your client’s preferences.

6. Attention to Detail

Of course, there are some generally applicable grammar, punctuation, and spelling rules, and a good editor will have a sharp eye for spotting and correcting such errors.

To be a good editor, you need to pay attention to consistency in addition to accuracy. And the details that need to be consistent are not confined to language and style; you may have plot points, character descriptions, locations, and timelines to keep on track. Keeping a style sheet can help to keep on top of such details, but, as a good editor, you need to be alert to them in the first place.

7. Excellent Language Proficiency

An understanding of syntax and a broad vocabulary are essential not only for effective editing across different types of content but also for those communication skills we highlighted.

You might, for example, instinctively know that a sentence sounds wrong, but as a good editor, you need to be able to understand why it sounds wrong (e.g., whether there’s a misplaced or dangling modifier, redundancy, or faulty agreement) so you can explain to your client why you’re suggesting an edit.

8. Critical Thinking

A good editor should possess the ability to analyze content critically, identify weaknesses and potential issues – plagiarism and copyright, for example – and suggest improvements so that it meets the needs of the writer, the publisher, and the audience.

This is where, as an editor, you have an advantage over the writer: you have the benefit of distance from the writing process. To make the best of that advantage, you need to think both as a writer – to determine their intention – and as a reader – to ensure that the writer’s intention is easily understood.

9. Empathy

It’s vital, as an editor, not only to understand the writer’s intention but to preserve their voice through suggested edits.

And it’s not just in the suggested edits to the document where you will need empathy. A good editor appreciates the writer’s effort and shows this by offering constructive feedback. They remember to acknowledge strengths while pointing out weaknesses in their comments.

Having empathy will certainly help you to do a great job as an editor; it will also lay the foundations for a good writer-editor relationship.

10. Creativity

Understanding the mechanics of writing may be what most people would expect from an editor. A good editor will use those skills creatively to improve the flow of a piece and make it more engaging for the reader.

As a fiction editor, for example, creative use of language and sentence structure will allow you to offer suggestions to improve the pace, emotion, and narrative distance of a novel.

11. Curiosity

Curiosity about a wide range of topics enables a good editor to engage with diverse content and provide valuable insights to improve a piece of writing.

You might expect that this will include curiosity about the use of language and style. (E.g., Is there a stronger verb that could be used here? Should that have been a capital after the colon?)

As a good editor, you will find yourself wondering about all sorts of things. Could that character be listening to Here Comes the Sun in 1968? (The answer’s no, by the way; it was released in 1969.) Weren’t they carrying an ax at the start of the scene? Could they have used that to break down the door?

Curiosity will enable a good editor to spot issues that could help improve a piece of writing – and spare the writer’s blushes.

12. Research Skills

Being curious is a great quality to have as an editor and you can enhance it with good research skills.

As well as turning what might have been idle curiosity into something useful, a good editor will often need to fact-check information and verify sources to ensure the accuracy and credibility of the content.

Knowing what makes for a credible source will be vital to this skill, making it a quality valued by your writer and publisher clients.

13. Patience

Editing is a meticulous and time-consuming process, bearing in mind the additional tasks we’ve highlighted so far, so patience is a key quality in a good editor.

You may go over the same piece multiple times before receiving an author’s revisions. You must apply the same meticulous approach each time – and remain polite in your comments and communications.

14. Diplomacy

Leading on from the above, diplomatic communication is essential when providing comments and feedback, especially when addressing sensitive issues – the use of conscious language, for example – or suggesting significant changes to the writer’s work. Or dealing with the umpteenth set of revisions.

As an editor, you act as a go-between for the writer and reader and the writer and publisher. Gently but firmly explaining the expectations of the reader and publisher to the writer is, therefore, a vital skill.

A good editor, like a good diplomat, will understand their part in the process: make the suggestions but respect the decisions made.

15. Tech-Savviness

Not all writers and publishers use the same technology, and not all to the same level of proficiency. A good editor will have the necessary skills to deal with this variety.

Many editors are freelancers, which means being their own IT department – and we all know how much time can be lost if IT isn’t working.

While technology isn’t a replacement for human input in editing – it’s lacking in empathy and curiosity, for a start – using tools and software to tackle some repetitive tasks can allow you to concentrate your efforts where your professional judgment is most needed.

16. Passion for Quality

A good editor is passionate about maintaining high standards in written content and is dedicated to helping writers achieve their best work.

This quality will help you to develop the attention to detail, adaptability, diplomacy, and patience – as well as the other qualities we’ve listed – to become a good editor.

17. Desire to Keep Improving

Continuing to develop and improve your skills is another key quality of a good editor.

Technologies evolve, style guides change and new content formats develop (it’s not long ago that no one knew what a blog was; the first one was created in 1994). For the benefit of readers, you need to be alert to change and keep your skills under review to provide the best service to writers and publishers.

And why stop at being a good editor when you could become a better one?

Becoming An Editor

Now that you know what goes into making a good editor, perhaps it’s something you want to become. You may already possess some necessary skills and want to learn more. Or maybe you’re already a good editor and would like to become an even better one.

Whatever stage you’re at, our Becoming An Editor course covers the essential skills required to become a good editor. Why not try some free lessons to see if it’s for you?