Profile: Carmen Rios

CARMEN RIOS Editing Progam, Class of 1998

Carmen Rios is a copy editor at The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey.

INTRODUCTION

MAYNARD INSTITUTE @ 25
• Our Vision: Seeing Ourselves Whole
• Our History: The First 25 Years
• Profile: Dorothy Gilliam
• Profile: Carmen Rios
• Profile: Mei-Mei Chan
• Our Legacy: The Next 25 Years

ROBERT C. MAYNARD: LIFE & LEGACY
• Maynard: A Tribute (video)
• Maynard's Legacy of Inclusion
• Shining Light of a Poet and Pioneer
• Maynard Image Gallery (flash)

In 1993, when I had been a paginator for about four years, I asked an editor if there was something else I could do. He basically told me that I had been hired to do a certain job and that is what I had to do. But my peers knew I was doing more: copyediting without being a copy editor, taking on more production responsibilities.

About five years later, when my boss asked me if I wanted to go to the Maynard Institute's Editing Program, I had no idea such a thing existed. I went out there blindfolded. The hands-on training was very valuable-the grammar, the headline writing and the editing. There were days when I dreaded the drills. I had a personal battle with headline writing. But for my own satisfaction I wanted to get it right.

When I returned to the paper I covered for the production editor of features. Now I'm a copy editor on the features desk. My immediate goal is to develop my copyediting skills. We have a headline-writing contest, and I have a goal of winning. I'm not clear on where I want to go with my career. But if it had not been for my Maynard Institute training, I would just be doing paginating. If that had been my future at the paper, I would have left.