Copy Editors: You are DEI Champions
There are many highly visible ways to champion diversity, equity and inclusion. Broadcast appearances, speaking engagements and editorials are all great tools to amplify a critically important message. This week though I was reminded of a less high-profile way our teams are accelerating progress toward a more inclusive world.?
S&P Global’s copy editors publish millions of words a year, giving them the power to shape the world’s first impression of the company. They are guardians of quality and keepers of the language we use to communicate complex ideas. Thankfully, these people are committed to conscious writing and editing that make our content more inclusive, accessible and accurate.
Chosen without care, words, phrases and even grammatical structures can reinforce stereotypes as they relate to race, ethnicity, cognitive differences, socioeconomic status, gender identity and sexual orientation. They can exclude, alienate, marginalize or hurt our readers. Conversely, if we choose our words well, without judgment and with awareness of our personal biases, we have the power to make a positive impact on society.
As American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne said: “Words: so innocent and powerful as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good or evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”
Besides being the right thing to do for the people around us, driving inclusion benefits business. The right words can inform, entertain and inspire new customers, new markets and a new generation of workers to engage with us. This helps us get our essential intelligence to an ever-widening audience.
Inclusive language helps us create an environment that will attract employees from the widest and most diverse talent pool by signaling a culture that welcomes all. According to BCG, companies with higher-than-average diversity deliver a larger proportion of revenue from innovation (45%) than companies with below average diversity (26%). This advantage translates into better ?nancial performance overall.
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So, to the editors who eliminate loaded language, remove signals of bias, and translate jargon to plain English, thank you. We celebrate your contribution to our mission for a more equal and inclusive future, and to the success of our business. Know that we are very proud of the work you do every day and the way you are using language as a force for positive change, one word at a time, with very little fanfare.
Borrowing from S&P Global’s training module, "Writing and Editing for Diversity and Inclusion,?created by Patrice Calise, here are five ways you can learn to communicate more consciously – whether you are editing an economic forecast, a novel, or even just writing an email:
Lastly, remember that we won’t always choose the right words despite our best efforts. Be patient and kind when people’s intentions are good and help others learn the value of conscious writing and editing.
Country Risk and Geopolitics Advisor
2 年With respect to the BCG study, I would say that there are very high rates of revenue from innovation in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, not exactly paragons of diversity. They were not included in the study, meaning that the sample was selective. This makes the findings questionable. A better study would include countries low on diversity as well as those high on diversity before making any conclusions. In addition, as we all know, nothing is explained by a single variable. Correlation is not causation. A study that is far more comprehensive is needed before we can conclude what the original BCG study cited here concluded, to wit, that you can get a 1% increase in revenue for x% increases in diversity. This is simply not science. It is not even social science. It is just motivated reasoning. Copy editors who are highly conscious about DEI may themselves hinder the telling of a true and important story. -For example, when the Pakistani gang rapes were ongoing in the UK, the concern in the media, police and local government about reporting the issue permitted the rapes to continue for a generation. People afraid of being called racist caused this. ? -Using the word women/she/her etc… in reporting rapes by people pretending to be women hides the fact that, in jail, you can get an easier time if you claim to be a woman, because you can be transferred to a women’s prison which is typically less harsh. This has already led to multiple rapes of women in jail by men claiming to be women. A legal system that permits this kind of thing should be criticised, harshly, by those who want to protect and represent women. I’ll stop here, and end with the appeal that companies focus on their core mission.
45 years experience and now enjoying retirement.
2 年Excellent. A simple message. A powerful message. Thank you.
Strategic Portfolio Manager @ Elsevier Applied Sciences | Accelerating Innovation, Maximizing Operational Effectiveness
2 年Spot on. Too often we write for the audience in our head (ie, ourselves) and not who will be consuming our words after we hit "Send" or "Publish". And in the business world, accuracy matters far more than style points.
Thank you for this. I fully agree. Keep language plain and simple. In my professional past as a communications director I have seen the impact of this first hand when communicating across all EU member states to a very diverse team.