Themis magazine
For more than three years, I worked as the editor for Zeta Tau Alpha, where I oversaw the production of the Fraternity’s quarterly magazine, Themis, and edited educational materials, resources for collegians and alumnae, and other print and digital assets for the Fraternity, the Zeta Tau Alpha Foundation and the Fraternity Housing Corporation. You can see the issues I’ve edited at the links below.
2022
2021
2020
2019
Individual Projects
Conceptual Editing
The project: An essay about anthems from the Civil Rights era
How I helped:
- Helped the author elaborate on the “why” behind the project
- Aided in defining the scope of the project, e.g., which decades to cover, and audience
- Helped the author with the beginnings of an outline for the essay
- Encouraged use of multimodal elements in the piece, e.g., curating a Spotify playlist of all the songs mentioned in the essay
- Asked questions to hear the author articulate goals, ideas
- Asked about other subjects of interest that may align with the essay topic
Developmental Editing
The project: A review of Type Matters
How I helped:
- Suggested changes to narrow the scope and define direction for the pieces
- Advised that the structure zoom in on specific elements of the book rather than a comprehensive book review
- Brought knowledge of academic papers to book review structure
- Reaffirmed positive choices the authors wanted to make
- Asked questions to help generate ideas for gaps in structure/narrative
Line Editing
The project: the beginnings of a fictional story
How I helped:
- Tracked questions in the comments feature of Microsoft Word
- Identified frequently repeated words/phrases
- Made suggestions regarding the order of phrases in sentences
- Commented on pronoun usage, e.g., singular “they”
- Pointed out misplaced modifiers
- Noted positive aspects of the story
Copyediting
The project: an essay highlighting the problematic nature of a white director telling Black stories
How I helped:
- Commented on word choice, making suggestions for different diction based on connotation and context
- Edit for consistency in tense
- Identified places in the text that may benefit from concrete examples
- Checked for correct formatting of titles
- Used the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word to make suggested changes directly
Types of Editing
Conceptual editing helps authors answer questions about audience, scope, genre expectations, format, and purpose.
Developmental editing helps authors structure or restructure their drafts and answer questions about transitions, narrative flow, quotes, and the balance between explaining and demonstrating ideas.
Line editing helps authors identify their typical sentence structure, unintentionally repeated words or phrases, imprecise language, and overall effectiveness of the piece.
Copyediting refines authors’ use of punctuation, ensures accurate spelling and capitalization, and evaluates the grammar and syntax of the piece.
Resume
Find my resume, philosophy of technical communication, and project PDFs on Google Drive.
Ensley Fraschillo's Portfolio 