Honesty Is the Best Policy Editors ae the threads that hold the different parts of any commercial publication together and keep it from falling apart into oblivion and bad writing. They adhere to company standards when evaluating material, and they do their best to prepare that material to be the most appealing it can be to the Prospective audience. Editors connect the author, the company, and the audience to each other and keep ‘them interested in each other. However, the strength ofthat connection relies on the individual strength of the editors—the strength ofthe threads, Just as inherently weak threads snap under pressure, weak editors fail to hold the three groups. together when situational difficulties arise, In order to stay strong under Pressure editors need three things: loyalty, clarity, and honesty. Leyalty ys : ae cS Loyalty to self, author, and company'prevents many dificult situations from arising and supports yes as | accept all ne editors should those situations arise. When you're loyal to yourself, you prevent yoursel Projects that you find distasteful or that you know will be difficult for you to fully support. In the words of James O'Shea Wade, “If you have some strong personal belief or bias that goes against the argument of a book, if you find the subject matter or ‘writing or point of view distasteful or even Tepugnant, then you should be very hesitant to involved! yourself, even if——or especially if—you think ‘it might sel alot of. copies” (74). Loyalty to yourself—acknowledging that some books will be better taken care of by someone else—will help you be better able to give your al othe projects you take, even when things 2 to Sr For that matter, acknowledgii you'ee unhappy or net in your work environment also helps you Ci Siatiot ner Ft esthe tages w do ainen ciealt you find that you are Constantly upset about your work conditions, admit to yourself that yout probably notin a place that suits you and start looking for work elsewhere. I'not easy. loved my coworkers in the dishroom, but I struggled with my boss. Once I found a new job, it was easy to be dedicated to my work again. Instead of QU Greed ayow ile bur ak wwoeld Chey f ft uk mad | hd.telling my friends how frustrating my day was, I get to talk about the great experiences I have, and I actually look forward to working at the writing center. Editors need to be loyal to both their authors and their company if théy-want to maintain ‘employment. J speaking of an editor’s responsibility at a conference, Michael Seidman says, “My feeling is that when someone agrees to speak, he commits to giving as much time as possible to the conference” (107). When we apply this to an editing agreement, we see that editors agree to spend as much time as possible or necessary on that project. If we even just hav®two projects and we like one and ee eee a easy to be disloyal, to break the trust ofthe author. And if we do, we will probably never see that author again. At the writing center, I Sout getto choose who I tuto and who I 46a", and I don't even know what paper Becauge of 4% erfvatit none inst for what class is going to come my way. So.I’ve had:ny fair share of papers that I disagree heavily with. I isagree a ‘try folnot tell the student how wrong I think the transhumanism movement is, but when we address‘ {cvs | Was a ite counterarguments, I'ma little too vehement and the argument of the paper ends'up changing. “If you’ qn t ‘suspect you are going to distort, even unwittingly, the author’s ideas and expression for whatever Is Hac Paper. I got lucky that the student was having doubts about his opinions and left without feeling like I had ruined his paper, but tere have been plenty of students who no longer come to the Writing Center because a tutor disagreed with their paper and didn’t hide it. » toy ay we ed ton wrk Covel § {{ However, we also have to maintain loyalty to our company. As Martha. steed states, “It’s my job to stand by the company position, and stand by my employer I do, but I always try to see both sides in any negotiation” (112).