Editing: a key to good writing
Last week, I was speaking at an Open Source symposium here in Toronto. The topic of my talk, as you might have guessed, was how to streamline documentation and still keep it effective.
One of the pieces of advice that I offered was to write as you’d speak. My point was that clarity can come from writing in a more natural, conversational way. Afterwards, I was chatting with one of the people who attended the presentation. He mentioned that whenever he tried to write in a conversational style, he wound up getting frustrated with his topic and the swear words hit the page.
I could sympathize with him, and explained that’s what editing was for. It’s often a step that many writers skip or just gloss over; I’ve been guilty of that in the past, and will be in the future. But editing is an essential part of writing.
Not matter how good you are, you’ll never get everything right in your first draft. At least, not consistently. Proper editing ensures that:
- Your writing is tighter
- You catch any typos or spelling errors
- Your writing flows, by adding or modifying transitions between sections
- And a whole lot more
Notice that I wrote proper editing. Editing, like writing, is a skill. A skill you need to learn and practice. A good way to learn how to properly edit is to take a course at the continuing education department of a university in your area or at a community college. MediaBistro offers what I’ve heard is a pretty good online editing course. And, of course, you can probably find a good book on editing at your favourite bricks and mortar bookstore or online at Amazon or Indigo.
What advice do you have for someone who is trying to improve their editing skills? And what are some of your favourite resources about editing? Feel free to leave a comment.
Photo by nkzs, from http://sxc.hu
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