I cannot teach you

Image borrowed from Duke TIP website

In my years of editing, I have been blessed to work with writers who are able to discern their mistakes through the edited work, and be guided accordingly.

On occasion though, I have also found myself actually writing down the mistakes, pointing out the grammatical errors, explaining why it is wrong, and showing how things can be simpler and more cohesive. It is during these instances that I realize that there are just some things that I cannot teach:


I cannot teach you how to write a good lead if you cannot figure out what is important.  Only then will you know if it is better to highlight the WHY over the WHO or the WHAT over the WHY and make an interesting lead.

I can tell you what to do on coverage, but I cannot teach you how to “smell out” a story more interesting than what you came for, or to know when a more interesting one presents itself and follow through.

I cannot teach experience. I can only guide you through yours and hope that you listen so that you can watch out for the pitfalls and not make the mistakes I have made.

I cannot teach you initiative – when to go beyond the minimum requirements to doing one-on-one interviews or researching for relevant facts that will strengthen your story. I can only point them out to you after I have read your draft.


I don’t know how to teach you to work hard, but I do know that I cannot keep telling you what to do and pushing you to do it. 


I cannot teach you purpose. You have to decide on your goals. You must stop showing up at an event and passing off documentation as writing. You have to anticipate what you can produce from your coverage so that you can arrange interviews if need be, or photo opportunities if relevant.


I cannot teach you how to read a situation and determine whether it merits a news release, a photo release or a feature.  This is invaluable because sometimes, something happens on the ground that should tell you that it has gone from a simple photo release to a feature.


I cannot teach what and what not to share via social media, or how to share company news in such a way that you do not go against office policy on social media.


I cannot teach you confidence. You only get it after writing and writing better and better until one day, you realize that you don’t depend on me as much as you have to “fix” your work.


I cannot teach you love of and pride in your work. If you had that, it would be so much easier to teach you to write well since you would be more unforgiving of yourself and work so much harder at improving your craft.


I cannot teach you the humility to write simply and refrain from giving in to the overwhelming urge to show off the difficult words that you know and which people do not use everyday.


I cannot teach you the value of editing yourself again and again and again, as I have done on this piece again and again and again. Thank God for the Web and for the convenience of being able to check definition and context at the click of a mouse.


I can tell you to read, but I cannot teach you how to learn from the writing.


I cannot teach you if you're OK with submitting work that you know is mediocre “since the editor will fix it anyway”.


If you're just stuck in this writing job until something more interesting comes along, I see no sense in teaching you. I don't think you're interested in learning.


Nor can I teach you if writing to you is just a job “that you get paid for” whether or not you do it well.

I can just point out and correct your mistakes, but I cannot teach you.