Written by Amanda Davis, Feature Editor
DAYTON, TN – Concetta Swann is a Bryan College Alumni and the Advancement, Writer, Editor, and Assistant for Bryan College. Her work mostly involves editing and writing material for the college. Swann recently published an Advent Devotional partially written by Alumni, which was sent to Bryan’s top donors.
Swann declared her major in English her sophomore year at Bryan. Swann said that she found her love of editing while taking English Tutoring: Theory and Pedagogy. After Swann finished her master’s degree, she became a full-time Advancement Officer for Bryan.
Swann considers her writing to be technical. “A lot of what I do is the minutiae, so making sure commas are in their right place, or one of the big things that I fix a lot is when people abbreviate a year after a name,” Swann said. Swann frequently edits press releases, articles on the Bryan website, and any emails to Bryan Alumni and friends.
Swann loves to edit, to the point that her coworkers occasionally laugh at her obsession. Swann says that her favorite aspect of editing is telling an exceptional story. “You have to put in the work to make it even better than it was when you first put it on the page. People pay attention to the story more if they’re not seeing all of these little things that are wrong,” Swann said.
Swann’s advice to new editors is to be okay with making mistakes. She remembers that during a writing project, she made a mistake on a gift receipt letter. She felt terrible at the time, but she now considers her mistake to be trivial. “I do very much feel like editing is one of those things that the more you do it, the more you are able to see the things [errors],” Swann said.
Amanda Davis is a sophomore communications major and creative writing minor at Bryan College. She is a Kansas City native and loves reading, writing and photography.
