In Search of a
Job Description
for Editor
By Judith McFadden, DMD,
Editor Emerita
outlined on blackboards, diagrammed
sentences with oblique lines, lines
parallel to the main subject/verb line…
all logical visuals that demystified the
structures of the written word.
Education did not make writing easy. It
never is. Education gave me the tools to
frame thoughts correctly and the ability
to convey those thoughts with some
degree of accuracy.
When I was appointed Editor of
the Pennsylvania Dental Journal,
I wondered, exactly, what my new
volunteer “job” entailed.
There was no manual, no outline of
duties, no job description. I didn’t worry
about being able to write. Undergraduate
and graduate studies in language and
literature had necessitated years of
reading and writing. Even more
importantly, I had been taught the
fundamentals of grammar in grade
school and high school. The good
Sisters of Providence had strictly
enforced the rules of writing. I still
remember the complex patterns
1955
1960
1954
Philadelphia
joined the ranks of
fluoridated cities,
becoming at the
time the largest
city in the world to
provide fluoridated
water.
24
I wasn’t worried about dangling
participles or how to use the past
perfect tense. My dilemma was what to
write. I had served on my local
component in Philadelphia and then, as
Editor, I attended the Board of Trustees
meetings which gave me further
insight into the issues confronting the
profession. I quickly learned that there
would be plenty of material for me to
use in my editorials. I groused about
governmental regulations, third-party
payers, and the sniveling “fake news”
and half-truths that the media
broadcast about dentistry. I remember a
couple of “60 Minute” reports that really
inspired my writing.
I also wrote about my gratitude.
Gratitude that I traced back to a remark
I overheard when I was a child and my
father and I were visiting an older friend
and mentor of my dad. His friend was a
dentist and I remember he said that
“dentistry has been good to me.” I still
see and remember that moment like an
old slide in a projector. I was baffled.
1965
1958 1961 1964
The organization has
a name change from
the Pennsylvania
State Dental Society
to the Pennsylvania
Dental Association. Pennsylvania hosts
the American Dental
Association’s 102 nd
Annual Session, held
in Philadelphia. PDA creates the Pennsylvania
Dental Service Corporation
(later known as Delta Dental), an
independent body having no legal
relationship to PDA. This was to
create a mechanism for providing
prepaid dental care
for organized groups.
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