Editor: Aleksandra Sandstrom Company: Pew Research Center # of years in editing: 9 years
Tell us a little about yourself, including how you got started as an editor?
I started out doing paste-up for my college paper when I was a freshman and moved into editing later. After that, I went to the University of Maryland at College Park for a master’s degree in journalism, and I had a fellowship with the now-defunct Baltimore Examiner as an opinion fellow. After grad school, I worked as a copy editor/web producer at CQ Roll Call for a few years before taking my current job at Pew Research Center.
What is your area of focus and why did you select this niche?
Currently, my work centers on religion-related public opinion and demographic research. I’ve always been interested in religion and the way it affects the daily lives of people around the world.
Walk us through a typical workday. How do you manage your time?
I keep a running to-do list on my desk in the hope that nothing gets lost or forgotten – I tend to be working on several projects at once, so it’s also good to be able to look at the list and see what’s coming up so that I make sure I don’t overbook myself.
I like to get as much editing in as I can first thing in the morning – if I’m working on editing a report, I’ll come in, have my coffee, put on some ambient noise and really dial in for a few good hours. If I have any blog posts to edit, I like to get those out of the way early, too. They’re usually short, so that’s a nice thing to check off my list early in the day when I can.
I always take a full hour break for lunch, which I find really helps me be more productive in the afternoon. If the weather’s nice, I’ll take a #stetwalk, or I might just sit at my desk and work a crossword puzzle or read a romance novel. It’s just nice to give my brain a very solid break!
In the afternoons, I’m back for more editing or fact checking. If my brain really needs a break, I’ll work on planning for our style committee or researching and writing my own blog posts. A nice thing about my job is that I do get to write blog posts from time to time, which is fun and breaks up the editing and fact checking. I also do a lot of production management for our reports, so if I have a production schedule to make or anything like that, I like to save it for the afternoon.
What is your favorite thing about being an editor?
I love working with writers and other editors to make the text the best it can be. There are few things more satisfying than identifying an issue and working with colleagues to figure out a creative way to solve it.
What is your biggest challenge and how do you work through this?
Sometimes we’re very constrained by what we can say because of a survey’s question wording, which in the case of a trend question, for example, might be using language than someone chose two decades ago. So sometimes there’s a negotiation between using up-to-date language and being true to the question, but I think we do a pretty good job at striking a balance.
What are you currently working on?
Several things! I’m working on editing a short survey report, and I’ve also got a fact checking project for a blog post and some newsletter-related items to edit. I’m also working on writing a blog post with a researcher.
What advice do you have for someone who is just starting their career as an editor?
It’s so important to learn as much as you can about the field you’re specializing in. I stay up to date on religion news and try to learn as much as I can about different religious groups’ beliefs and practices. Not only is it helpful to have a surface-level understanding of topics related to your specialization, but it also helps to know what you don’t know, and to know what some of the current conversation in your area is about. It’s also important not to take this knowledge and think you don’t need to look things up, because you definitely do. Everyone says it, and it’s so true – look everything up, even when you think you know the answer!
