answer:Rather than actually try to cheer her up or give her the confidence to continue and all that blarney, you might ask her some probing questions about her real interests. I can hardly imagine a “poor student” becoming successful in the field of editing. “Publishing” isn’t “editing” in my mind. I liken those to “Sales & Marketing” vs. “Engineering”. (I’m not making a pejorative comparison! Sales and marketing are valid and necessary fields of endeavor, but they aren’t normally as technical and precise as engineering.) “Editing” is a field of technical precision, I think (real editors feel free to correct me), and cries out for someone who has been – and enjoyed being – “a good student”.