Volunteer Positions Available

Few people outside the editing trade are aware of what a periodical publication editor does. The work involves two activities, described below. Both of the activities are necessary for a successful publication, and neither is sufficient by itself.

Editing - Yes, editors edit. But "wordsmithing" is not something that one can simply decide to do and jump into it. My observations indicate that this poses a delicate problem in the engineering community because

• It seems that most engineers consider themselves to be good written communicators.
• Experience in the publishing field and with PSEN indicates that most engineers do not write well, let alone edit the writings of others. If you've been involved in writing or editing, words like "Strunk & White" or "Chicago Manual of Style" are probably familiar to you.

Mining for content - The other half of a typical periodical editor's work (and PSEN is typical is this regard) is to locate useful and interesting content. Intuition would seem to indicate that an editor sifts through a stream of submitted articles, then edits the best for publication. Wrong. Most successful publications receive submitted articles, but not nearly enough to feed the issue-after-issue conveyor belt. Mining for content involves serious time and effort devoted to networking.

Contact or any board member if interested.