Up, Down and All Around

Editing Questions

Spent most of yesterday working on my org's next newsletter issue.

It's not the most fun thing in the world to be doing, but I have to admit there's some satisfaction when you finally finish editing all those articles.

One thing I haven't quite figured out yet, however, is where to draw the line when I'm editing someone else's work. Every time I feel the urge to change something, I have to force myself to think:

• Am I changing it because what s/he's written isn't clear or easy to understand?
  
• Am I changing it because it's grammatically incorrect?
  
• Have I changed the meaning or message of the sentence or paragraph?
  
• Am I changing it because I simply don't like his/her choice of words?
  
• How much of the editing that I'm doing is true editing and how much is me imposing my own voice or personality on someone else's work?

I guess there are no easy answers to those questions. My adviser's only tip so far has been for me to get a copy of The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. And while it's helpful as a grammar reference, it still doesn't give me any hard and fast rules for editing.

Tags: Editing, Organization

Posted by CF at 11:35 AM