Do editors need to be industry experts?

Sit me in the Mastermind chair and I’d be hard pushed to choose a specialist subject. Eric Clapton, maybe? Summer Olympics?  As a lifelong fan of Ivor the Engine and Noggin the Nog, I’d probably settle for the works of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin. 

When I started my business 10 years ago, I called it fit to print because I was specialising in health and fitness topics. I’d worked on a running magazine, midwifery and nursing journals and on a pregnancy and babycare website. My expertise was in patient information – turning complicated medical language into words that ordinary people could understand and act on. They could use this information to make informed decisions about their health. 

Since 2001, people have asked me to write and edit content on a wide range of random, non-health topics, including chicken boning machinery and extreme fire juggling. 

Did I know anything about these topics before I started? Nothing. Did I need to? No. 

In his recent blog Do copywriters need to be industry experts? copywriter Ben Locker identifies three important qualities for people writing about a particular industry or profession:

• An interest in the sector
• An understanding of industry language
• An outsider’s point of view.

He says:

“Industry insiders have a habit of talking about what interests them, not what interests their clients or customers. Your copywriting should tip the balance the other way.”

In Informing Patients*, healthcare analyst Angela Coulter and team set down guidelines for developing good quality patient information materials.  Their number one recommendation is: 

Use patients’ questions as the starting point

I still use this as my mantra, substituting ‘readers’ for ‘patients’. My industry expert clients are the ‘doctors’ – respected for their specialist knowledge and experience, but not always able to explain themselves clearly to their ‘patients’.  That’s where I come in. My specialism is putting myself in the readers’ shoes and asking the dumb questions they ask – about any subject.

I’ll start with zero knowledge on Monday morning. By Friday afternoon I won't quite be the world expert, but I'll have enough knowledge to answer those questions, in language the readers can understand and act on. 

*Coulter A, Entwistle V, Gilbert D (1998). Informing Patients: An assessment of the quality of patient information materials. London, King’s Fund.