Assistant Editor - Washington, United States - US Congressional Budget Office

Description

Duties:

The Congressional Budget Office is seeking up to two assistant editors to join a group of editors and graphics editors charged with ensuring that the agencys publications are clear and accessible to a broad audience.

CBOs nonpartisan analysis helps Members of Congress, Congressional staff, researchers, journalists, and other members of the public understand the effects of policy decisions on the federal budget and the economy.

As part of the Editing and Publishing Services unit, assistant editors gain expertise in editing, online publishing, and project management, while contributing to CBOs ongoing efforts in data visualization.

They work on a broad set of issues related to the federal budget, including such topics as demographic changes, flooding risks, prescription drugs, and weapons systems.

Requirements:


Conditions of Employment:

• Excepted Service

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS:


Qualifications:

• A bachelors degree (or one that will be granted by August 2024), preferably in journalism, English, communications, or another field within the humanities;
• The curiosity to ask probing questions to understand complicated ideas and the ability to convey those ideas in clear, straightforward language;
• A detailoriented approach to work and a habit of reviewing ones own work for correctness and completeness;
• An interest in learning to edit specialized, numbersheavy research and quantitative information presented in tables and graphs;
• Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to exercise patience and understand others viewpoints, as drafts undergo review by many people who may make changes and suggestions;
• Facility completing tasks under deadlines and the flexibility to occasionally work evenings and weekends when necessary;
• A commitment to maintaining objectivity in a nonpartisan organization; and
• Proficiency with Microsoft products (Excel, PowerPoint, and Word) and experience with Adobe InDesignor the ability to learn new software quickly

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TECHNICAL QUALIFICATIONS:

Proofreading and preparing final proofs.

Proofreading includes correcting grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors; checking cross-references and links; ensuring consistency with CBOs style guide (which aligns closely with the Chicago Manual of Style); and flagging formatting problems.

Preparing final proofs includes entering and checking changes.
Editing smaller publications (including internal documents).

CBOs analysts and executives are frequently asked to distill findings or explain analytical methods in presentations at conferences, in testimony, and in written answers to questions submitted by lawmakers after Congressional hearings.

Editing those and other smaller publications involves reworking sentences and paragraphs to improve readability; correcting grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors; ensuring consistency with CBOs style guide; working with graphics editors to ensure that charts and graphs tell a story; copyediting citations in footnotes and checking links; ensuring that formatting features in Word meet requirements for production; and managing the project as it advances through review and production.

Assisting editors with larger reports.

Tasks are often divided among multiple editors when the agency produces longer publications, such as The Budget and Economic Outlook.

Tasks for assistant editors include reading first drafts and providing comments, checking references in footnotes, tagging Word files for production, proofreading Excel files, and shepherding sections of the reports through review.

Checking HTML files. Most of CBOs publications are released as both a PDF file and an HTML file. Checking HTML files involves ensuring that all content appears correctly and that hyperlinks work.
Working on special projects.

The editing unit usually has several special projects in the works, such as updating CBOs style guide, testing editing software, and deploying enhanced project management tools.

Assistant editors contribute to those projects.


Education:


EDUCATION:

Bachelors or higher required


Additional information:

This job is being filled by an alternative hiring process and is not in the competitive civil service.

• Benefits

A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package.

As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding.

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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent.

Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.


How You Will Be Evaluated:

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

• Benefits

A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As