Down South
Someone who writes
My friend Pam Castrillo is finally getting down to the serious business of writing her doctoral dissertation on managing university publications. Last week, she sent me her twenty questions, just when I was serving the last days of my internship and getting ready to pick up the threads of my interrupted life. Pam’s questionnaire brought home to me the reality of my having been appointed acting editor of the Tambara for 2009-2010.
I had served Tambara as associate editor since 2001. Since then, the editorial board had suffered serious attrition in the ranks. Last year, only Bel Actub and I were left to put out volume 25 and the accompanying 25-year index of articles. Of course, we cried help! But if you’re drowning and no one’s coming, you can’t stop treading water and trying to get to shore. (And this is the part where the children’s ears have got to be covered. Aw, heck.)
I thought perhaps that I could concentrate on getting ready for my comprehensive exams and doing my dissertation this school year, but it seems like the better part of it would still find me doing my bit to uphold the standard of academic publications in Mindanao.
Pam’s questions provided the opportunity for me to reflect on why I accepted this assignment. I am grateful because now I can’t in all honesty see the editorship as a load dumped on my shoulders. It is actually a job I can do and one that needs to be done.
I share with my readers my thoughts on four questions that I found crucial to my decision. God bless you, Pam. Your Qs couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Good luck on your dissertation.
What in your early experience, education and training led to a life of writing and editing?
I always wanted to be a writer. Later, I figured out I could be anything in life and still write. It’s only been in the last five years actually that I’ve felt comfortable being identified as a writer. For so long, it was the verb form that I found more applicable to me.
But words always had magic for me. I recognize my limits in that I can’t be creative – like, manipulate the scenario, mood, pace, or create imaginary people saying imaginary lines and thinking imaginary thoughts… I can’t construct that in cold blood. So, no, I’m not a writer in that hallowed, exalted sense. I guess people can call me a writer, but I still think of myself as someone who writes.
I’ve been editing other people’s work since I was in high school. I sometimes earned from it. I have no problem working on something and having someone else finally taking the credit for it, so long as it had been his idea in the first place. If I find merit in the idea, I feel it is my responsibility to put it out there for others to appreciate. In cases like that, I don’t even need to get paid. It’s “one for the bayan” time. Of course, it had only been lately that I could to some extent provide the venue for other people’s voices to be heard.
As a sociologist, a lot of research is required. I’ve been trained to do the report in a way that someone who has no background on the matter would be able to follow. I’ve freelanced as a researcher all my professional life.
As a psychologist, my bias is for privileging the meanings people hold for their behaviors... as well as the meanings they make of their experiences. I work primarily with narratives and journaling – capturing streams of perceptions. In fact, my wayward and fanciful pieces are generally that – instinctive reflection working out how the pieces of my experience fit together and what’s the take home lesson for me; then I can be at peace. Perceptual accommodation and reorganization. Experiential and inductive, if you notice. (Papansin. Frustration ko that walang undergrad thesis written on my column! Hello!)
What makes you a good editor?
Respect for expertise. I want people who know what they’re talking about to speak out when they have something important to say. I have the gift to mediate the way they say it to make others understand. Intellectual honesty: credit where credit is due. Nolo contendere? Protect the writer, the journal and the institution. Present them in the best light possible.
What makes me a bad editor? I’m not very patient with format and inconsistent with the use of the manual of style as guide.
What are the things you look for in an article?
I’ll go with Mac (Macario Tiu, former editor of Tambara) on criteria: substance, relevance and readability. The article has to say something that (1) fills a yawning gap in current discourse – like, nobody else is saying it, (2) rearranges what is already out there in ways never before done, or (3) demonstrates a novel and/or rigorous methodology for data gathering and/or discourse. The author presents hard data and rationale for how the data were gotten.
The article addresses a topic that is timely, has significant social impact, clarifies a problematic situation, and ideally provides for ways that are actually workable given current conditions.
As to readability, we look for flow in the presentation of details, we also check the words used to make sure that they are comprehensible to the lay reader before he bumps into them. Fine balance required there to avoid digression. Slash and burn vs. add and elaborate.
What makes Tambara different from other journal publications?
It’s a Mindanao voice fearlessly, unabashedly addressing Mindanao concerns and insinuating itself above the hubbub on national issues, showcasing quality writing and intellectual discourse. It is Jesuitic in that it comes from the intention of serving community needs above all and it tries to do that by employing the power of reason and discernment.
The Tambara is about Mindanawons on Mindanao, and maybe on stuff outside Mindanao. Our bias is to provide the venue for writers from Mindanao. When we need to import guest writers from outside Mindanao, they too become a voice coming from Mindanao because Tambara is from Mindanao. Call that reverse colonization – someone has to even the playing field somewhat. But preferably their article has to be on Mindanao, too.