Cover Letter

Certificate Program in Editing                                         
UW Professional & Continuing Education
Seattle, Washington                                                                                   

To the Director of Admissions:

I was six when I first chose a chapter book for myself.  I picked Emily’s Runaway Imagination, by Beverly Cleary, and I have been reading voraciously—and unstintingly criticizing writing—ever since.  

Although I studied Sociology and Anthropology in college to avoid being Just Like My English Teacher Mother, the A’s I earned were in my English classes, and in the post-graduation-now-what-do-I-do-with-myself phase, I continued studying language arts in the mornings as I worked retail in the afternoons.  

I found a good fit as a master’s student in Linguistics: language, but deconstructed, described, discussed.  My thesis on ostensible compliments was in the Discourse Analysis sub-field, which views words, contexts and shared perceptions as a whole to explain how meaning is created—valuable knowledge for an editor.

While acquiring my MA I also acquired, 12 years ago at age 26, breast cancer, and the ongoing challenges of living with a serious disease have yielded rich fodder for my blog, I Thought I Was Done With This.  

My cancer requires particular attention and management, so traditional work has been difficult to pursue.  My part-time internship at Seattle Magazine, though, and my later memoir editing projects, offered me a taste of an attainable fulfilling and flexible professional pursuit.

I am ready to hone and legitimize my latent skills and long-term editorial interests, and hope to do so in your program.  

Thank you,

Calin Taylor 

Hey all y'all readers--I'm gonna have a career to go along with my fine living-with-cancer job!  I've been kicking around the idea of editing for a long, long time.  I notice language, and revel in using it, and am particular about the prose I'm willing to spend my time reading.  I enjoyed the editorial internship I had at Seattle Magazine lo these many years ago, and really got a kick out of telling my mother where to get off with her memoirs.  Even digging through Ian's ponderous academic/scientific articles yields nuggets of smug satisfaction, because even with his brilliant mind, he occasionally misplaces his clauses (mostly when he's been cutting and pasting a lot).

I know my own writing isn't perfect either (I occasionally publish a blog post 3 or 4 times in a row because I've had to fix something once I've read it in situ), and this certificate program at the UW will help me with that as well.

At any rate, last week I decided to apply, and this morning I was accepted and I paid for my first quarter!  Classes are Wednesday evenings starting in October.

Fun!