No one ever teaches you how to be an editor

I love my job. It is the best job I could ask for; and soon, I will have to give it up. In return, I get a cap and gown.

I'd toot my own horn, it would be a familiar sound. But not today.

See, through the journalism program -- and I've been through all of broadcast and print -- you learn to be a production assistant, reporter, copy editor, writer, intern, janitor, etc. but no one ever teaches you how to be an editor.

It's just one of those things.

I'm not complaining. I don't expect my undergraduate courses -- in which some kids struggle to learn news values -- to teach me the complexities of knowing how to handle 60+ reporters, constant deadlines, coworkers, production/photography. It doesn't fit into a four-year curriculum.

So when deadline comes, and all the assignments given have fallen through, no one ever teaches you what to do. Nothing I've read tells me how to magically fill five pages with meaningful content, when given 150 words of student senate beat. It's not something I'm going to find in my text books. Strunk and White say I'm SOL, and AP is laughing at me.

I guess these are the times that test journalists to see how creative they can get.

Did I pass/fail? You decide: Thursday's Maine Campus news section.