Editing: Coercion and Morality

Chapter 5 notes and writing assignment

Chapter 5 in your textbook tackles an issue that I believe many students have trouble with – editing. I understand the reasons for it: Many times, you’re just finishing your assignment with minutes to spare before the deadline. Or maybe you’re just over it – you’re tired of the topic and just want to be done. Another possibility is that you don’t realize the importance of good editing and what a difference it can make in your writing. Your textbook has a list of Ten Principles of Power Editing, and I’m going to talk about them here. There are times that all ten apply (or SHOULD apply) to our writing, but for some writing projects, a few should be sufficient. I’ll try to sort those out in a useful way as we discuss them.

1. Give it the time – Many professional writers schedule about a third of the scheduled writing time for editing and rewriting. In other words, if you have a week to write a document, you should plan to finish it at least two days before it is due so that you have time to edit and proofread it before turning it in. You can do the math for the shorter or longer assignment times.


2. Give it some space – You need to walk away from your writing before you begin the editing process. If you’re like me, you write with energy, full of thoughts about your topic and eager to get them down on paper (or on the computer screen) as quickly as possible. That’s a good thing, but it also leaves us unable to be dispassionate about our writing. We need to take a step back from what we have written before we begin editing. That may mean leaving it overnight, or for a couple of days. Maybe it means going to lunch, or taking a walk, but do something else for a while before returning to your writing for the editing process.


3. Consciously switch roles – After you have been the writer, become the reader. Try to put yourself in the mindset of the person, or persons, who will be reading your document. (An old boss of mine from decades ago asked me to picture a very cranky old man sitting on my shoulder reading what I had written, interrupting me with questions. Since my boss was a cranky old man, I had no trouble with that mental image.) Your book says to “approach the piece as if you’ve never seen it before.” If you can do that, you will see where some things may be overexplained and others underexplained, or where the language or phrasing might be difficult to read.


4. Use track changes to edit on screen – This is one that may work for you, but does not work well for me. I suggest you try it out, if you have not done so. For me, in the editing process, if I find a sentence or paragraph that doesn’t work, I cut and paste it into a new document and save it, just in case I need to refer to the material. Find a system that you find useful.


5. Print it out and use your red pen – This one does work for me, and it may be because that’s what I grew up with. (We had typewriters when I was learning to write professionally, and computers didn’t come along until much later. Ask your grandparents if you don’t know what a typewriter is.)


6. Edit in successive stages – Sometimes, when we make changes, we introduce new mistakes, which need to be caught and corrected. Reviewing is a continuing process.


7. Use the read-aloud test – This one really works well for me. When I read what I have written out loud, I find spelling and grammar errors more quickly, but I also hear when I have written overly complicated sentences or garbled syntax. I also hear examples of my worst writing habit, which is overusing the same words. Try this one. I guarantee that your writing will improve.


8. Use grammar and wording tools – Microsoft Word gives you a handy tool called the Readability Index, which quantifies how easily understood the material is. (For example, this epistle scored 68.2 on the Readability Index, which means that it is rated “fairly easy to read,” and appropriate for a seventh-grade student, so you college kids should find it a piece of cake. And please understand that I am not suggesting that you should do this all the time. But when you are writing something particularly difficult, or especially important, this approach can let you know how well you are being understood.)


9. Find a co-reader – This one is useful for writing that contains a lot of detail, or is controversial, or is likely to be misunderstood. Ask a friend or colleague to take on the role of audience and give you some feedback.

10.  Proofread – Once you think you’re done, you’re not done. Read it one more time, and again, and again, if necessary, until you read it all the way through without making additional changes. Then you’re done.

Please also read the section on the Practical Editing Stage, which offers some additional good advice for the editing process.

Then you’re ready for this week’s writing assignment, which asks you to edit your own writing.

Choose something you have written – for this class, for another class, for work, or your personal writing. The document should be at least one page double-spaced, and not longer than two pages, double-spaced. If you prefer a word count, make it at least 150 words, but no more than 300 words.

Then edit yourself to improve your writing, following the rules in the chapter and those discussed above. Submit your assignment as one Microsoft Word document, with the original writing and the edited writing clearly labeled. Then, at the end, explain in one paragraph why you made the changes that you made. Your assignment is due at the end of the day on Friday.