How many teens can an editor work with at one time?

That depends on the depth and complexity of the stories the teens are working on, the teens' skills, and whether the editor has other responsibilities (such as layout and production). As a rule of thumb, an editor can work intensively with about six writers at a time. So, for example, in our summer workshops, where teens are here full-time for six weeks or more, each editor works with six teens. During the school year, when teens are not here full time, an editor may be working with as many as a dozen youth at a time. But some of them will be working on complex reported stories or difficult personal essays that may require 10 or 20 drafts over a two month period, while others will be writing movie reviews require only three drafts over three days. The reason for the low student/editor ratio is that helping teens develop good writing, especially teens with weak skills, is basically a tutorial. At the same time, because we are primarily a youth development program, our editors need to ...  more