EFA’s Los Angeles Area chapter met on May 12 for a presentation by Kellie Hultgren titled “Avoid the Knowledge Gap in Your Editing.” As editors, we wear multiple toolbelts—a mixed variety of subject matter expertise, technical proficiency, and style guide wizardry. At some point, we all get pulled up short by a gap in our knowledge. Kellie discussed triaging the gap and weighing important factors, such as: “Attention is a finite resource, and switching between tasks reduces both your effective working time and the quality of work in both tasks.” She also reminded us that “Brains only hold so much!” and that as we add to our “databank,” we only need the most relevant information to be handy, as older “data” gets filed away. Kellie encouraged us to invest in our own expertise, stay alert to patterns of thinking that keep us mired in unhelpful “templates,” and evaluate prospective projects for mismatches in which a gap truly prevents one from being the best editor for the job.

Image: To to bottom: Cody Sisco, Simha Stubblefield, Kellie Hultgren, Lorraine Martindale.

Janet Long
EFA Los Angeles Chapter Co-coordinator