Effective editing

Communicating clearly and concisely is extremely powerful. Writing clearly and concisely is nearly impossible. Good writing starts as an unintelligible mess of thoughts on paper. It is from this unfinished slab of writing that editing will sculpt your Venus de Milo. There is something to be said about taking a big, unwieldy, and almost incomprehensible paper and trimming it down, shaping it into something simple and elegant. However, editing is not a skill that many people do well.

For most, it's pressing spell check once or twice and reading the whole paper through from start to finish. Your first step in editing is using the spelling and grammar check, and the last step is reading through the paper from start to finish, but the process is much more. After spell checking the paper, read through each section once or twice. Your job is to identify grammar and spelling errors, awkward wording, areas that need clarification, and areas that need to be re-ordered to flow well. Identifying grammar and spelling mistakes takes time and a keen eye. If grammar isn't your thing, try reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves; it'll pique your interest with some humor and get some grammar rules stuck in your head. Awkward wording is easier to identify. If you misread a sentence when reading it at full speed, it's awkward; reword it. If you get that feeling that something "just doesn't sound right," it's awkward; reword it. Areas that need clarification are also easy to spot. If you have to read a sentence more than once to grasp its meaning, so will everyone else; rework it. Change the wording so that you convey your message clearly. For me, the hardest part of editing is making sure everything is in the correct order. In creative works, your climax is at the end to build anticipation. In technical works, your climax is at the beginning to convey the most important information quickly. For both, the writing must be continuous so that each sentence flows into the next and supports those around it. Good luck fixing these errors; there are almost infinite possibilities for the order of paragraphs, sentences, and words, and the best/most pleasing order isn't always cut and dry.

Keep in mind that there is a great deal of room for personal preference in writing style and editing, and editing will vary based on what you are writing for. Editing my blog is an entirely different beast than editing my engineering reports. Additionally, know that it is harder to edit your own work because you often read what you thought you wrote, rather than what is written. If you must edit your own work, you need to put it down for a day or two before editing to do a good job. For a good paper, editing will probably take much longer than writing.

Finally, remember: When writing, don't hesitate to include it; when editing, don't hesitate to remove it.