[2022-05-18] Editing your work
A friend emailed me today to ask me whether I could edit a document for her. I accepted the request given that I've always enjoyed editing.
As I read through the text, I got the feeling that I was looking at a first draft. This is a common occurrence: writers ask someone to review their writing before they've done a thorough edit themselves.
This reminded me of a story that a deputy minister told during a session I attended back in 2011.
When one of Henry Kissinger's new staffers handed him a speech he'd written, Kissinger asked: "Is this the best you can do?" Not sure that it was, the young recruit took back the speech and worked on it for a few more days.
When the employee returned a second time, Kissinger again asked him: "Is this the best you can do?" Still not certain that the speech was his best work, the staffer went away to try again.
When he returned a third time, Kissinger repeated his question: "Is this the best you can do?" This time the recruit said yes, to which Kissinger replied, "Good. Now it's worth my time to read it."
Though I never applied the so-called Kissinger Test, I did wonder on occasion—as I did today—whether I was reviewing a first draft or something the author had already tried to refine.
Granted, it's difficult to edit your own work. But there are tricks you can use to make your writing product as polished as it can be before passing it on to someone else:
- Get some distance from your draft. Kissinger's staffer no doubt benefited from being able to work on the speech over a few days. Time permitting, it's useful to let your draft sit for a day so that when you come back to it, you are reviewing it with fresh eyes.
- Read your work out loud. Reading text out loud allows you to hear errors that you might not otherwise see. It also slows down your review so you're more likely to find mistakes, awkward language and repeated words.
- Use online editing and proofreading tools. Many programs, such as the Microsoft suite, have built-in editing and proofreading tools that pick up most grammatical and spelling errors. Turn on this feature and use it.
- Review your writing in different formats. If you're editing on screen, consider printing your document out and reading it out loud. Or paste your text into a different format, especially if your primary writing program doesn't have a built-in editor.
- Focus on one aspect at a time as you make multiple edits. Your first review might be for flow, ensuring that each sentence follows logically from the one before. A subsequent scan might be to look for repetitive use of a word such as "said" or "learned." A third pass might focus on removing unnecessary words.
- Ask a trusted friend or colleague to review your text. After you've polished your writing to the point you think it's perfect, seek input from someone who will provide honest and constructive feedback. If the writing doesn't represent your best work because, for example, you are pressed for time, then be upfront about that fact with your reviewer. You might ask for overall impressions that you can use to refine the piece before resubmitting it to them for editing.
Getting your thoughts on paper is a great start, but don't stop there. Editing a piece to get rid of every word that isn’t necessary, to ensure each sentence flows from the previous one, and to identify opportunities to use simpler language is essential for producing a readable text. It also shows respect for your editor, by ensuring that what you bring forward is the best you can do.
