The first thing we will do is let Dr. Michelle Angelo Rocha, a native Brazilian Portuguese speaker and whose second language is English, share her experience working with me as her editor.

Michelle wrote a Scholarly book chapter for an academic anthology, Making A Spectacle: Examining Curriculum/Pedagogy as Recovery from Political Trauma (Curriculum and Pedagogy), but felt she needed help on it before submitting it to the editors. We met through our doctoral courses at USF, Tampa, fast becoming friends and academic colleagues and over the years have worked on several conference presentations and symposium film productions together, so she knew well my areas of expertise and called me. We worked for several Saturdays doing a line-by-line editorial review: me standing in as a sounding board that asks critical question and instructs on powerful writing techniques and her, being the storyteller, revising her work. She sent me this video testimonial as a thank you after her chapter was accepted. I thank her.

I learned so much from Michelle during our sessions together and not just about her life and the topic. Working with her seriously cemented my belief that both instructor and editor must at all times remain cognizant of their personal interpretations and influence. Being a 1st-language-English speaker, when reading or hearing the writings from a writer whose first language is not English, it is paramount that I make no changes, but rather leave all changes to the storyteller. My role is first-language-English-Speaking participant reader and as needed instructor, listening and asking questions and explaining rules of the written English language and English creative writing techniques and nuances of the English language as the storytellers read their written work out loud and together word by word, line by line, ensure the story on the doc.s page is the story they are wanting to tell.

Asking questions helps prevent me the editor/instructor imposing my story and or interpretations of their story (making it my story) in place of theirs. My favorite questions are, “What are you wanting the reader to understand or think about when you say… What do you mean when you say… What do you want the reader to see, visualize, or imagine when you say… How are you wanting the reader to feel when you say…, and my very favorite, When you say this, I see, think, and feel… Is this what you want me to see, think, and feel, and if not, which part of the paragraph (or sentence) do you think is causing the disconnect and why?” Using these and similar types of questions helps ensure that my voice and interpretations as editor do not take away from or change the storytellers voice. The really cool thing is that when most storytellers relax and aren’t trying to figure out how to write something the perfect way, they articulate themselves clearly and concisely, and I’m like, “See, no big deal. That was beautiful! Now, write exactly what you just said to me. In those exact words. It could not have been said better!” That was Michelle. Brilliant and articulate.