English majors can become editors

The argument

Editors are paramount in the creation of any kind of book, or any kind of publication at all. They scout for new authors, proofread the writing to be published, and communicate with the author to give feedback. Each of those tasks rewards a different facet of the same training: judging what is worth publishing is a matter of taste developed by wide reading, proofreading is a matter of technical precision, and giving feedback to a writer requires being able to explain why a passage does not work, not merely that it does not. That is why the fit with an English degree is unusually direct. More detail-oriented and grammar-alert English majors might find themselves great at the proofreading part, and the rest would have to come from learning on the job — which is the ordinary condition of entering any profession, not a special obstacle. What cannot be picked up on the job in the same way is the underlying facility with language, and here the graduate arrives already equipped. The language ability of English majors, who have spent several years writing essays and being graded meticulously on them, is pretty much guaranteed. Years of having one's own prose marked line by line is, in effect, an apprenticeship in the very scrutiny an editor is later paid to apply to someone else's. Regardless of the technical fit, an exciting aspect of being an editor is the fact that you play an active role in the making of a book or any other publication. You oversee each part of the book as it is written, the changes it goes through, the whole process until it finally emerges as a completed work ready to be shown to the world. For someone who chose the subject out of attachment to books rather than calculation about salaries, that involvement is not incidental to the job's appeal — it is the appeal. Book-loving English majors might appreciate the feeling all the more as they work on producing something that could show up the next time they browse their local bookstore.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Editing as a profession demands far more than the language proficiency a degree certifies — market judgement, project and author management, negotiation, and specialist subject knowledge, most of which an English major has not been trained in. Publishing is also fiercely competitive with very few entry-level editorial roles, so an English graduate holds no decisive advantage over applicants from other disciplines. Calling language ability 'guaranteed' overstates what years of graded essays actually establish about someone's readiness to edit professionally.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Not everybody might share the same thoughts.