10 Great Pieces of Advice About Editing

10 Great Pieces of Advice About Editing If youre lucky, you know someone who can act as your editor, but most of us end up having to edit  our own editing. Theres just one problem: its really hard to spot mistakes you made yourself. You might think some commercial editing software can help you, and although Ill admit some of these are pretty good at picking up certain errors, none of them will find them all. You can believe me. Ive tried a lot of them with hope in my heart. To test them, I feed them work I know is packed with errors, and I still havent found one able to find all of them. I guess this leads me to my first piece of advice: Never Trust Editing Software Its actually quite comforting to know there are some things a machine cant do effectively: writing is one of them, editing is another. Dont rely on spell checkers, grammar checkers or any other writing programs to catch all of your errors. At least your eyes and your brain will never be made redundant by a machine. The Matrix needs us. Let It Lie for a While The worst possible time to try and edit something youve written is right after you write it. I find the greater the distance in time between me and my written work, the more effectively Im able to edit it. Its as if it becomes someone elses work. I can read it impartially and with fresh eyes, picking out mistakes I previously missed. 24 hours is the absolute minimum, and 48 hours is even better. Do I practice what I preach? Ahem Read It Aloud Yes, I know it feels dorky. Just pretend youre a TV news reader or the narrator for a documentary. Put on your best announcer voice and read it as if it were a script. You can also have a program read it to you with the Word Counter proofread feature. (If you dont see it above the text area, go to options and then click on buttons) Does anything make you falter? Are there sentences that sound weird? Did you need to pause at a place where there was no punctuation mark? These are areas that probably need tweaking, even if you cant actually put your finger on the reason why theyre wrong. Trust Your Instincts It gets harder when youre editing someone elses work. You dont want to offend them by making unnecessary changes. Sometimes, things are said in a way you wouldnt have done it. Is it wrong? Maybe not, but Id still advise an adjustment. When I edit, I cant always say exactly why I changed this or that sentence, but in time, Ive learned that my instincts are often right. Its better to make an unnecessary change than to skip a change just because you arent sure how to explain it. Track Changes When editing another persons work, track changes so they can decide if they want to accept your judgment or not. Then create a clean version (after saving the changes tracked one), and check again. I often find I pick up additional errors. Dont ask me why. Maybe one doesnt see everything the first time around. With your own work, theres no need to track changes, but the final proofread rule still applies. Look out for Ambiguity You can be ambiguous without actually making a grammatical error. You know what you meant. Did you say what you meant? Imagine you know nothing about the topic and are reading about it for the first time. Does it make sense? Pay Extra Attention to Long Sentences The longer the sentence, the more likely itll contain an error. Have you put a comma where a period  would be better? Is your thought presented in a crisp, clear way, or have you become tangled up in your own words? Does Everything You Have Written Contribute? When writing an essay, youre trying to get a point across. Anything that doesnt actually contribute to the point is redundant. Even in creative writing, there has to be a reason for everything you have said. You could be contributing to the atmosphere or providing background, but if what youve said does not contribute something, its just padding that waters down your prose. Beware of Punctuation Its worth studying how to use punctuation marks. Commas, semi-colons, colons and dashes are often used incorrectly. Have you used them correctly? When in doubt, check. If youre still not sure, rephrase. Know Your Vices When editing your own work, its good to know what mistakes you commonly make. Since you probably make them without even realizing it, have someone who knows their stuff give some of your writing a look over to point them out. Ask questions and learn to identify your slips. Youll probably find your slips a few times before the lesson sinks in. (Photo courtesy of Matt Hampel)