Is the Editor Right?

Let me start out by saying that this is a really long blog post, so reading the italicized words are not entirely necessary, they just help to emphasize the point of this blog.

Recently I wrote an article for the newspaper that our church publishes, and I thought the article was great. It had the exact emotion that I wanted and my opinions were very clear and well thought out and developed. It read like an educated person had written the article. Now granted it was a bit long, but it was talking about two events that I have a great passion for and had a moving experience with. That was extremely clear from the article. I expected some editing or revisions of the article. Maybe some information that wasn't exactly necessary or pertinent could be deleted but I did not expect what was actually published. There were multiple sentences that do not even mean the same thing because they reference totally different events. The outcome was that my well developed, articulate and coherent article turned into a choppy article that sounded like someone who was just learning how to write complete sentences wrote it. Let's just say the final product did not sound like me at all, maybe a robotic version of me, but that was even cutting it close.

So I am posing the question: Is it okay for an editor to fully edit a piece of work and then sign the authors name without allowing the author to have sufficient time to revise the new edition?

My opinion is that it's wrong, and I honestly would have rather had him not print or publish my article because he had not heard back from me in time for the issue, than sign my name below an article that I can no longer say I wrote.

So here is the Article that I originally wrote:

     As my school year ended and I graduated, and finally the summer was here I found myself with the opportunity to travel to Minnesota for the Episcopal Youth Event! This is an event that invites teenagers who range from freshman to seniors in high school, from every diocese in the United States and some provinces like the Dominican Republic with their chaperons to gather in an environment where they can explore their faith and beliefs without the pressures of their peers, or society. I was lucky enough for this summer’s trip to be my second time, and I was able to look at the workshops being offered each day and choose ones that weren't necessarily fun (most were anyways) but were something I could learn from. My first workshop was about finding your voice in the church. As a teenager in general it’s rare that my opinions or ideas are legitimately heard and actually taken into consideration but during this workshop I was taught how I can be a voice that is heard and listened to within the church. The biggest point that was brought up was our relationship with adults. Most of the adults I know usually don’t take teenagers very seriously, for a lot of reasons, and don’t get me wrong often times those reasons can be correct, however, even if those reasons may sometimes be accurate, when given the opportunity to rise to the occasion almost every teenager or child will meet or exceed the standard or request you have given to them. This being said the workshop made it very clear that in order to be taken seriously by adults we must act and have the respect of the adults which we are working with essentially “when in Rome do as the Romans do” kind of mind set. I learned about Diocesan Convention, General Convention, and many other formats where the voice of the children could be heard in order to keep the Episcopal Church alive. After this workshop I went back to my group and was so excited and energetic about the whole “having a voice” concept that the whole Rhode Island Delegation was talking about it, or rather listening to me talk a lot about it. However, the whole group got a lot out of my constant yammering and they want to create a Diocesan Youth Council! Later that week we also heard a speaker name Rodger Nishioka, who said, “Children aren't the future, they are the now!” and I hope you all think about that if you would like to hear his speech please go to this YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtMaFGcNau8 I highly recommend it, and I think I can speak this one time on behalf of not only the delegation who went to EYE with me but also on behalf of the other 1,300 participants who attended the Episcopal Youth Event this year!

Here is the article that was published and my name was signed under:

     As my school year ended and I graduated, I had the opportunity to travel to Minnesota for the Episcopal Youth Event! This is an event that invites teenagers who range from freshman to seniors in high school, from every diocese in the United States and foreign countries. Thirteen hundred youth and chaperones gathered in an environment to explore their faith and beliefs, without the pressures of their peers, or society. This summer’s trip was my second time. Workshops were offered each day and we could choose those that we could learn from. My first was about finding your voice in the church. As a teenager in general, it’s rare that our opinions or ideas are legitimately heard and actually taken into consideration. During this workshop, I was taught how we can be a voice that is heard and listened to within the church. The biggest point that was brought up was our relationship with adults. Most of the adults I know usually don’t take teenagers very seriously, for a lot of reasons. Don’t get me wrong, often times those reasons can be correct. However, even if those reasons may sometimes be accurate, when given the opportunity to rise to the occasion almost every teenager or child will meet or exceed the standard or request you have given to them. This being said, the workshop made it very clear that in order to be taken seriously by adults we must act and have the respect of the adults we are working with. Essentially, this means a mindset of ―when in Rome do as the Romans do

     I learned about Diocesan Convention, General Convention, and many other formats where the voices of the children could be heard in order to keep the Episcopal Church alive. After this workshop I went back to my group and was so excited and energetic about the ―having a voice‖ concept that the whole Rhode Island Delegation was talking about it, or rather listening to me talk a lot about it. However, the whole group got a lot out of my constant yammering, and they want to create a Diocesan Youth Council! Later that week we also heard a speaker name Rodger Nishioka, who said, ―Children aren’t the future, they are the now!‖ I hope you all think about that. Iif you would like to hear his speech please go to this YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtMaFGcNau8 . I highly recommend it. I believe that I have written this article to speak on behalf of, not only the delegation who went to EYE with me, but also on behalf of the other 1,300 participants who attended the Episcopal Youth Event this year!

Just to put this fact out there the difference in length or word count is thirty seven words. That is maybe three or four solid sentences. But instead the writing takes on a whole new tone that does not represent me or my writing style. 

So thank you for the adults out there in the church (not all adults are like this, I know almost an equal amount who are silencers and empower-ers) who have once again silenced the voice of another youth who was trying to speak her mind and share her individual thoughts and ideas and maybe be seen for something more than the child who was raised in her parish and maybe as the eighteen year old intelligent high school graduate who is going to be attending college in the fall for Biomedical Engineering. Ironically enough the article was based on the fact that children were trying to find their voice in the church and then my voice, in my writing, was stolen from me too.