Case Study B

Editing magazine stories for a freelance writer

The Client: A freelance writer writing her first magazine assignments.

The Situation: The client is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience writing feature and investigative newspaper articles. She has spent a major part of her career showing high school newspaper writers, interns on a daily newspaper and her colleagues how to find the story; how to find the story behind the story; how to get people to open up about the story; and how to write so readers care about the story.

But when it came to writing her first magazine pieces, she faced the same issues every writer faces: Is the editor going to want this story? Have I done justice to the topic? Is it written well? Is it free of mistakes?

The bottom line is: Everyone who writes for the public — whether a seasoned professional or a beginner — needs an editor. We all need a fresh, unbiased eye looking over what we have written to make sure it works. That was WriteSmith’s job in this case.

The Solution: WriteSmith read several draft copies of the client’s articles looking for ways to improve them. WriteSmith helped the writer:

• Develop a different approach to some articles to make her points clearer
• Change some language to match the readers’ reading level
• Edit for mechanics of style as well as grammar, spelling and punctuation
• Add some information to help the reader get a deeper understanding of the story

The Result: After making recommended changes to the articles, the client submitted them to the magazine. The magazine’s response was positive.

• The articles exceeded the editor’s expectations.
• The writer received the agreed upon payment.
• Her articles appeared in the magazine and are listed on the magazine’s Web site.
• She became a regular freelancer with the magazine.