How to Edit Someone Else’s Writing
Editing is what turns tortured text into polished prose. It’s editing that undangles our participles, shortens interminable sentences, levels out bumpy writing, and keeps us from confusing principal with principle. Editing someone else’s writing is often easier than editing your own because you can be more objective than when you personally fussed over every word.
If colleagues ask you to edit their work, don’t take on the task unless you’re willing to be honest with your comments. You won’t be helping by being mealy-mouthed about the material rather than forthright about changes you recommend.
It’s a good idea not to do any editing your first time through the material. Read it start to finish to get a general sense of it. If you find nits to pick during this first reading, try to refrain from commenting. Then read it again, this time paying close attention to whatever aspect of the piece the writer wants you to focus on. It could be the overall flow, instances of ambiguity, grammatical goofs, punctuation and spelling, misuse of terminology, or almost anything else.
In other words, focus on what the writer wants from you; editing for overuse of semicolons when the writer wants feedback about the readability wastes both your time. Still, if the writer is requesting grammatical-level editing and you find the writing incomprehensible, it would be unkind not to let the writer know.
I recently heard the suggestion to review material on a smartphone because the tiny window of text is what many readers will see as they read. It’s also a good idea to print out the material before editing it so that you can get the big picture and see the flow from paragraph to paragraph and page to page. If possible, include comments to explain your edits so the writer understands your intent.
And be positive. This means more than using cheery words to propose changes. It means also noting things you find good about the writing. For one of my books, I had an editor who provided extensive edits (sort of like this). Every edit was valid, but chapter after chapter of focusing on what needs changing was demoralizing. I’d have greatly appreciated an occasional “great idea!” or “well said”!
I wrote this article knowing that my TechWell editor will take her editing pen (or online equivalent) to it and what you read will be much better than what I submitted. Thanks, Beth!
Fantastic introduction to proofreading. I honestly hadn't considered reading someone else's work more than one time through, even though I plan to go through multiple drafts of my own comical, self-branding guide.
I'm preparing for my first writing critique group though. There are chapters from 3 different writers, so I'm not sure there is time for this approach. Is there a happy balance; something more than a single, grammatical read through, but less two full reads?
Three chapters from three writers -- that's a tall order. Some suggestions: Definitely work from printed copies of the chapters if possible and work with one chapter at a time. Scan the chapter quickly, just glancing at each page. Sometimes, errors, inconsistencies and potential problems jump out even though you're not looking for them. For example, I find super-long paragraphs difficult to read; my eyes need a break by having the text divided into separate paragraphs. So when I see a page that's all or nearly all one paragraph in material that I'm editing for someone, I suggest they divide it into 2 or 3 paragraphs -- or I suggest where they might do the dividing.
After this quick scan, go back and read 1/3 to 1/2 of the chapter carefully. That will give you enough content to gain insight into the writer's style and to locate potential problems. Problems you encounter in the first part of the chapter are likely to continue appearing throughout the chapter, so you can save time by not reviewing the entire chapter. Instead, point out the problems you've encountered or edits you suggest (as well, of course, as the things you liked!) and encourage the writer to re-examine the rest of the chapter based on the edits you've provided.
If time permits after you've done this for each of the three chapters, you can always go back and read further into each chapter. Good luck!