Sensitivity reading and editing
for fair representation across workplaces, cultures, subcultures and communities
What is it?
Sensitivity reading and editing can take many different forms and may involve a range of tasks and people.
This typically involves reading a manuscript or document and assessing its content for:
- authenticity
- diversity
- inclusion
- access.
If problems or concerns are identified, the next step is to determine the nature of those concerns and who should be consulted for appropriate solutions. This may involve engaging alpha-readers and beta-readers with lived experience of the culture or phenomenon, or community authorities or representatives, and/or experts in the field.
Manuscript assessment and editing services for sensitivity
Books and writers play a critical role in shaping how people – individuals and groups – perceive the world and others. Think of how children and adults become fans of a particular writer and latch onto their worldviews.
Renée Otmar can provide a sensitivity assessment of your work, whether that is an internal policy document, a website, smartphone app or a manuscript being developed for publication as book.
This assessment may cover:
- authenticity – e.g. whether a character, setting, plot or other information is likely to ‘ring true’ to readers who are depicted in the work
- sensitivity – how a text or publication deals with matters that are contentious and/or potentially hurtful or offensive to individuals or groups from particular workplaces, cultures, subcultures, communities and identities
- diversity – how a text represents individuals or groups from different ethnicities, cultural or linguistic communities; with diverse abilities or disabilities, including neurodiversities; gender identities, sexualities and sexual orientations; ages; educational and professional backgrounds; thinking styles and beliefs (to name just a few)
- inclusion – how effectively (or not) the different elements of the work, such as the text, images and presentation, contribute to the reader’s/user’s experience and sense of belonging
- recommendations for consultation with specific groups depicted within the text.
The assessment service can be broad, or high-level, with recommendations for readings by alpha-readers and beta-readers with lived experience, by community authorities or representatives, and by experts in the field. It can also be specific to my own lived experience and professional expertise.
The assessment may involve a short report to highlight problem areas, accompanied by annotation of the manuscript or document. Or it can take the form of a developmental edit or a style edit, with a one-page report describing the key areas and potential solutions.
Workshops and presentations
Renée Otmar can work with you to develop a keynote presentation, a one-off workshop or a training program to introduce and support your team in developing a diverse and inclusive mindset, approach, culture and work process.
Past workshops and presentations have included conference workshops for editors, writers, university students, researchers and executives in the corporate environment.
Let's talk about stereotypes, bias and discrimination – it's not all bad
In contemporary societies, we are exposed to vast amounts of data and information. Researchers say that at any point in time our brains are processing around 11 million bits of information, but we can only consciously process 40 bits, which makes us 99.999996 per cent unconscious. This explains why we’re hardwired to automatically jump to conclusions in certain situations.
Typically, we use shortcuts to help us discriminate between helpful and unhelpful information. We may rely on innate or learned biases or stereotypes to help us navigate our way through the world. Both positive and negative biases can be harmful. One potentially harmful form is unconcious bias.
Unconscious bias is a social stereotype that forms outside of our awareness, and influences us to favour or discriminate against others based on how they look or behave, and whether they share our beliefs. This means you can find yourself unwittingly judging someone based on their age, gender identity, their sexuality, appearance, weight, height, religion and nationality; from their hairstyle and the perfume they wear to the books they choose to read and the TV shows they enjoy.
What can we do?
It’s important to remember that we are all perpetrators and victims of unconscious bias.
If you want to explore your own unconscious bias you could take the demonstration test developed by Harvard University in the United States. This 3-minute video by the Royal Society in the United Kingdom is also a brilliant resource you can share with your friends and colleagues.
Ultimately, we all have unconscious biases, so any tendency to discriminate against a group or individual may not be intentional but keep in mind that it can be changed, with time and commitment.
The more we expose ourselves to things that challenge us, the less discriminatory we will be. The more we talk about representation of diversity and being inclusive, the more we encourage ourselves and others to work towards a diverse and inclusive future.
Consider how you project diversity and inclusion in the mindset you bring to your work and your communities. Encourage those around you to be inclusive, respectful and open to new/different ideas, perspectives and ways of doing things. The more you do this, the better you will become. Remember that none of us is perfect – it’s okay to be uncomfortable at first, and if you make a mistake, take responsibility: own it, apologise and find a way to move forward.
Most importantly, celebrate diversity in all its forms!
