Thank you for your interest in editing for The Borgen Project! We are delighted at the possibility of having you join the fight to alleviate global poverty. The following test is meant to ensure that you have the skills necessary to be a valuable contributor to our editing team.
Our editors have the important job of ensuring what we publish is not only grammatically and structurally correct, but factually so as well. It is the duty of our editors to discern between publishable and unpublishable content, and to be able to provide valuable feedback to our writers and journalists.
Beyond just testing editing skills, this test is also meant to determine a candidate’s ability to carefully follow instructions while working independently.
- Step 1. Copy this document and paste this into a word document.
- Step 2. Save it as “First Name/Last Name/Editors Test” (Joe Smith Editors Test)
- Step 3. Follow the instructions below. Once you’ve finished, please attach the file as a Word document and reply to your email thread with the hiring manager.
Part I: Technical Editing
Instructions: Editors must be able to read articles and fix major grammatical errors, structural issues and logical inconsistencies using AP Style. The article below has many errors in spelling, grammar and word usage. Read the article and fix any mistakes you find using Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature. If you do not have Microsoft Word, please highlight your changes in red. When finished, send us back your edited version of the article.
Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army
The Lord’s Resistance Army is one of the longest running and most violent armed groups in Africa. The US State Department reports that it has been active since 1986, it was formed in northern Uganda to fight Uganda’s government. It has a sordid and violent history including the forcible recruitment of over 66,000 children for both sex slaves and child soldiers. The longevity and continued activity of the Lord’s Resistance Army can be attributed to its leader, Joseph Kony.
The Lord’s Resistance Army was created due in part to the Holy Spirit Movement which was founded in the 1980’s to represent the Acholi people of northern Uganda. Kony founded the L.R.A in order to combat Uganda’s government headed by President Yoweri Museveni.
The Lord’s Resistance Army has never been a popular movement, it has never had the support of the citizenry in the countries in which it operates. Although it was created in Uganda, it has operated in the Central African Republic, Southern Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The supposed mandate of the L.R.A when it was conceived was to create a theocratic style state in Uganda based on the 10 commandments of the Bible.
The armed status of the L.R.A has been reduced to an almost insignificant amount, the Guardian reported after being chased across the Nile in 2005 the L.R.A has maybe around a few hundred fighters.
Kony has been able to maintain control of the Lord’s Resistance Army through a blend of fear, death, and mysticism. Kony to this day states that he is a medium of spirits and is able to communicate with them. A report by Lt. Col. Richard W. Skow detailed the spiritual beliefs of the L.R.A and the elaborate methods that Kony went through in order to maintain his aura of control and mysticism over his troops. Reported Skow: “To start the possession Kony would dip his fingers into a clear glass of water. Multiple spirits would pass through Kony in a single session. On average at least three spirits would talk in a session.”
In the report which was published in the Independent and also stated in Lt. Col Skow’s report, Kony put on extensive performances where he would be “possessed” by 13 different spirits of all ethnic backgrounds.
The destruction and poverty that the Lord’s Resistance Army has contributed and caused is extensive. 24.5% of Uganda’s citizen’s fall below the poverty line according to the CIA World Fact Book. The two decade long conflict with the L.R.A has displaced over a half million people in central Africa. There were reports that in late 2013 Kony was attempting to negotiate with the Central African Republic for the terms of his surrender. However many believe that this was merely a smoke screen so the L.R.A could shift its base of operations to the northern parts of the Central African Republic where ongoing tensions between Christians and Muslims would make it much more difficult for international authorities to locate him.
Joseph Kony is still at large and being hunted through the jungles of Central Africa by a host of multinational troops. Kony is directly for responsible for a multitude of atrocities and crimes against humanity. In the ongoing struggle for lasting peace and equality around the world, the plight of those suffering in Central Africa as a result Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army should and cannot be forgotten.
– Riter McAuthorson
Part II: Editing for Content and Style
Instructions: The Borgen Project’s Content Team is committed to publishing well-researched, unbiased and original content that engages the public and raises awareness about issues surrounding global poverty. We look for focused articles with grabbing titles, reputable sources, well-developed ideas and a professional tone. We strive to highlight the good news—the progress we have made in fighting global poverty—as well as the bad. Editors must ensure that articles are of the highest quality and must be able to give writers constructive feedback when writing can be improved.
Below are two articles you might encounter while editing for The Borgen Project. One of them we consider almost ready to be published; the other could use improvement. Without making changes, please tell us which article you think better matches the quality criteria listed above, and give three or more reasons to justify your answer. Note that in this section we are less concerned with specific technical errors than with larger issues of content and style. For example: “Article A is biased in favor of the Libertarian Party, whereas Article B maintains an impartial tone” would be a good justification for preferring Article B, but “Article A is missing a comma in the second sentence” would be a poor justification for preferring Article B.
[Type your answers here on your saved version]
Article 1: Coke Initiative Empowers Women and Yields Profits
In 2010, the Georgia based company, Coca-Cola, launched an innovative economic empowerment initiative for women in the developing world—5by20. 5by20 aims to enable the economic empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs across Coca-Cola’s global value chain by 2020. It is part of a growing trend by major corporations to partner with grassroots organizations to achieve their business goals while empowering people of the developing world.
For Coca-Cola, it is a beneficial strategy; investing in people of the developing world also translates into more business in the long run. After 127 years in business, Coca-Cola developed the world’s largest beverage distribution system, spanning over 200 countries at a rate of 1.8 billion servings a day.
Coca-Cola is focusing on female entrepreneurship because when women have equal rights as men and equal access to participate in business and economic decision-making, their increased earning power is invested back into their families and communities. It is a multiplier effect in human development terms.
5by20 relies on collaboration with nongovernmental organizations, governments and businesses to help break down social and economic barriers that women commonly face in poorer countries. These partnerships include access to business skills training, financial services, assets and support networks of peers and mentors. As of the end of 2012, Coca-Cola has enabled about 300,000 women of the developing world to become entrepreneurs.
In Brazil, Coca-Cola partnered with the Coletivo Program. Coletivo works with local NGOs to teach retail skills to 25,000 young adults in low-income areas to help them enter the job market or start their own businesses. The training courses offered include how to start a retail store, building a home-based business, supporting recycling businesses and helping handicraft artisans build a business and access markets. To date, Coletivo graduates have developed business plans for 6,000 small outlets, a third of which are run by women.
Coca-Cola also uses innovative technology to generate more business and income for women entrepreneurs. In rural India, Coca-Cola is supplying women-run shops with solar-powered beverage coolers. The nifty coolers also have charging ports for mobile phones and can power their own lanterns so owners can light their shops in the evenings.
Last year, Coca-Cola subsidized 100 kiosks around Nairobi, Kenya in a pilot phase. The results showed that shopkeepers prolonged their operating hours by four hours per day which translated into increased sales of 15 percent more per week. At the same time, they cut their energy spending by up to 90 percent.
Sources:
Coca-Cola: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/5by20
Business World Online: http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Economy&title=Coke-TESDA-program-to-expand&id=72319
One Degree Solar: http://onedegreesolar.com/
Business Daily: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/-/539550/1750832/-/1043gck/-/index.html
Article 2: A Profile of the Soccer4Water Organization
So many times these days you hear that the current generation of youth is lazy, spoiled and uncaring. With bygone generations standing up for the rights of African Americans, women and people in general, it’s easy to write off the kids of today as being less involved. But one teenager and his friends are proving them wrong. They saw that even though 70 percent of the world is water, only 1 percent of it is actually drinkable. They’d found their cause!
Over a year ago, Jake Yonally of Santa Barbara joined the youth movement, Hands4Others (H4O). Presidio Sports, Santa Barbara’s sports news site, interviewed Jake when he came back from his most recent trip to Honduras. They report that “Jake joined H4O over a year ago and formed his own chapter called Soccer4Water that raises funds to provide safe water in countries around the world. H4O is a movement of young people started in Santa Barbara by three local teenagers who no longer accepted the idea that where you live determines the ability to access safe, clean water. Together with their families and a growing number of compassionate young people, they have provided water to well over 100,000 people in ten countries around the world.” The infant mortality rate in Honduras is 20.44 deaths/1,000 live births.
Jake was not just building while he was in Honduras, though. He and his teammates also spent time playing soccer with the kids of the village with used balls donated by the soccer club. His coach, family, and the board members of the soccer club all stand behind his dream of helping others. Without the assistance of people like Jake and his team, 9 million people will die from a lack of clean water to drink this year alone. But when someone stands up and decides they will no longer accept the idea that so many people live in poverty, we see real sustainable change take place!
Sources:
Presidio Sports: http://presidiosports.com/2013/06/sb-youth-brings-clean-water-to-honduras-through-soccer/
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honduras