It’s weird how much conflict comes out of the editing process.
You were making a super helpful suggestion about standardising the page headings and all of a sudden it’s war. Change it back or else!
Having a healthy debate about our work is a good thing, but sometimes it goes way beyond a constructive conversation and gets difficult for content wranglers. It’s personal.
Why does writing get so controversial and what does it means for us as editors?
The psychology of endowment
One explanation for what we’re experiencing is what psychology calls the endowment effect.
This started from an idea in standard economic theory: rational people like you and me should place a similar value on an item regardless of who owns it.
Whether that novelty coffee cup is yours or mine shouldn’t make any difference to how much it’s worth. Same for that webpage/document/report.
In one of the classic experiments participants were given a coffee cup at the beginning of a session and told it was theirs, then later given the opportunity to sell or trade it.
Far from the buying and selling prices matching, mug owners wanted twice as much for ‘their’ mug as the amount they’d be willing to pay for it if they didn’t own it.
Experiments like this highlight something obvious that it’s easy to forget: when something’s ours we tend to value it more than if it belonged to someone else. That bomb of a car that I wouldn’t pay $100 for might be your dream project. As soon as I see something as mine I value it more.
When it comes to writing, even if we aren’t buying and selling our sentences, we can be even more subject to the endowment effect, because our writing not only belongs to us but is something we create ourselves.
We write the way we think, so the words we choose are like a representation of our selves (even if it’s a description of the company purchasing policy).
When you start to think of the words as a proxy for the writer in the author’s mind, then conflicts make a lot more sense. Those line edits were like a personal insult.
On the surface we might know it’s only about grammar, but on another level it’s hard not to feel your professionalism and competence is being attacked.
Implications for editors
As content professionals wanting to do great work it’s incumbent on us to approach the editing process with this in mind.
1. Have empathy
We need to empathise with the people whose writing we’re editing. No matter what kind of content disaster you’re dealing with, remember that it could be the beloved product of someone else’s mind.
2. Watch your framing and presentation
When providing suggestions, beware of leading with a sea of red tracked changes. There’s no better way to trigger someone’s anxiety about the process.
Instead you might want to skip straight to the final version of ‘their’ copy, and summarise the suggestions at the end. That can make it easier to see the benefits of the updated version and take the focus off exactly what’s changed.
Adjust based on what you know about the edit-ee. Are they a detail person who’ll sweat the small changes? How personal is the subject matter for them?
3. Create a favourable narrative
Set positive expectations about your suggestions before actually providing them. Your success depends on the pre-existing relationship with the edit-ee. Gaining their trust might as simple as a phone call or meeting. Make sure they know you’re on their side and working for a good result.
4. Help them own the end result
Do you whatever you can to help the edit-ee see themselves in the changes. If it’s clear your suggestions are helping meet their goals or achieve something that’s fundamentally important to them, losing a few words stops being a big deal. It’s a gain not a loss.
The key is that they feel like an active participant in the process rather than having things imposed on them.
5. Confront our own biases
Be open to the fact you have your own biases and blind spots that might emerge in the editing process. You might be the one who’s wrong.
As editor, there’s nothing better than having your own writing edited regularly to help you remember what it feels like to be critiqued.
Common justifications you may need to deal with
If you’ve tried all of the above, and are still having difficulties there are a few common justifications that I’ve found come out as a last resort.
These reasons are designed to sound compelling and final, but don’t despair – they’re often the wheeled out on flimsy grounds as a last attempt to ‘win’.
Stay cool and gently dig behind the rationalising to see if it’s well founded or just a smokescreen.
“This is the way we talk around here – users just need to be educated.”
- Respond with:
- What would be the downside to saying it their way?
- It might save us an expensive re-education campaign that isn’t guaranteed to work.
“We need to write that way for legal/compliance/policy reasons.”
- Respond with:
- Is it good for us if people have trouble understanding our policy?
- With a little thought we can be both clear and accurate.
“We don’t have time to review this many suggestions – just do it the original way”
- Respond with:
- Taking a moment to consider this will be more than worth the time, if it helps users understand the message properly.
- Removing the excuse by providing a succinct summary of what’s changed and showing how quickly it can be implemented you’ve agreed.
“My boss/senior important person says it must be written that way”
You know you’ve exhausted logical reasoning when you hear an appeal to pure authority.
There’s a good chance they haven’t talked to their boss at all. Or they might just be worried about losing face when admitting something’s changed.
- Respond with:
- Asking about the specific reasons their boss wouldn’t agree with the updates, then seeing if you can help them understand why the VIP would actually be happy with the outcome.
- Sometimes if you offer to talk with their boss directly, they’ll even drop the bluff altogether, or otherwise allow you to negotiate with the real decision maker.
Summing up
If you managed to get your approach across the line then congratulations! If you’ve done it right, the edit-ee will see the benefits of your collaboration first hand, and the whole process will be easier next time.