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Alumni Stories
Wielding the Red Pen
Jami Brunk Young – BA ’93, English
By the second year of college, I was still unsure of my educational path. I was running out of general requirements to take and knew I needed to make a decision on a major soon. Like a lot of students, I tossed around a number of tracks – maybe fashion merchandising? I liked clothes and shopping. Maybe public relations? I am a smooth talker. Definitely something that didn’t involve lots of math – that wasn’t my strong suit, to say the least. One day I came upon a poster in Denney Hall that listed a million job titles and, if I recall correctly, had images of some well-known people. All the jobs were ones you could do with an English degree, and all the folks listed attributed their English degree to getting them where they were in life. The point of the poster was to emphasize how versatile and practical an English degree really was. It was amazing! I was overwhelmed at the possibilities. I can actually pinpoint that my encounter with that poster changed my life.
So…I chose English as my major! Just like that.
Once I got my groove on, I decided that criticizing and tearing apart other people’s copy sounded like a fine way to make a living. I wanted to be an editor. Going through the English program, I decided editing textbooks at a publishing house sounded exciting and important. And doing it in Boston, a city I love, sounded sophisticated.
It was amazing the number of people who, when they found out I was an English major, asked if I was going to become a teacher. Like that was the only thing you could do with an English major! I wanted to take each one of them by the hand to Denney and show them my life-changing poster.
College went fast and in December of 1993, I received my diploma. What a special accomplishment! Like many students, I didn’t have a job lined up. I had no connections in any publishing houses in Boston, so that wasn’t panning out. So for the interim, I took a job as a book seller at Little Professor here in Columbus. I thought if I couldn’t edit books, I might as well work with them every day and possibly pick up knowledge of the business end of the publishing cycle.
I was sending out a million resumes to anyplace that I knew published anything – internal newsletters, newspapers, quarterly consumer magazines, technical publications, everything. After about 2 months at Little Professor, I got an interview with Suburban News Publications, a Columbus-area newspaper company that publishes weekly neighborhood newspapers. The interview went well and I was hired as a copy desk editor. I had finally made it in the publishing industry! I was thrilled. I continued working at Little Professor, but after a while, two jobs was too much of a challenge.
Not to take anything away from my college education, but I can honestly say I have learned more about editing, grammar, syntax, and proofreading on the job. I had a terrific editorial mentor at SNP. All told, at SNP I was a copy desk editor, then society editor, then copy desk chief. It was a great place to get editing experience.
After three and a half years, I left SNP and went to work for what was then Gerbig, Snell/Weisheimer, a pharmaceutical advertising agency here in Columbus. (The company is now inChord Communications.) I joined as editor and spent four and a half years there. I was assigned to a few different teams that created marketing materials for drug reps to use to try to get physicians to write prescriptions for their products. Becoming familiar with how the FDA liked things done was quite rigorous.
The great thing about being an editor is that you can contract your services, either full-time or on the side. You can work as much or as little as you would like, although I am sure most freelance editors would say they would always like to have more work. After leaving GSW, I went to work for Ryan Partnership in Columbus as a freelance editor. It was a unique situation, as I was in the office every day, 40+ hours a week. Ryan is a marketing and promotions company, which meant most of the copy I edited was for sweepstakes and store openings.
After a year and half of freelancing, I jumped off the merry-go-round to take a job as publications editor with The National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors in Columbus. I knew nothing about boilers, but knew a good amount about editing and was eager to grow my writing and publishing skills. The communications department was small and the position provided me a great opportunity to dive into many projects that in a larger company would have been done by someone else. My primary responsibility was for the company’s technical journal. I wrote extensively for the magazine I was in charge of, worked closely with the art director on the design of the publication, and was responsible for the overall editorial coordination of the magazine.
While I was working at The National Board, I was freelance editing for The Ohio State University Medical Center. It was this relationship that led to my current job at OSUMC. An editorial position came up within the Medical Center’s Communications and Marketing Department and I was called for an interview. After a few months and three interviews, I got hired as managing editor. I love my job! I have been at OSUMC now for two years, and am responsible for the editorial control of the Med Center’s consumer publication and its monthly physician publication.
The thing I really love about being an editor is the constant opportunity to learn new things and grow my talents. There is so much to know about the English language and good grammar. There are more style rules than you could ever imagine, but learning them all and getting them down-pat is an exciting challenge. I don’t know what I would do without a style manual and a dictionary!
So maybe my plan to edit textbooks in Boston didn’t pan out. I’m not one to look too far into my career future, but my plan is to stay at OSU Medical Center for as long as they will have me! I have been married for 6 years to Kory Young, and we have a step-child, Abby. I still love to visit campus, and, in fact, haven’t missed a home football game in 19 years. Go Bucks!
Jami Brunk Young
English, ‘93
