How to Edit Documents

One of the easiest ways to edit any document – whether an academic essay, a poem, a novel, a blog article, or anything important – is simply to order editing and proofreading services. Most companies that provide these types of services, including companies offering book proofreading services UK, have a pool of writing and editing professionals who can help you on any writing-related task you may have.

However, if you are committed to editing a piece of writing yourself, there are a few tricks of the trade that are important not to overlook. This article covers the main points that will help you do a great editing job irrespective of the type of document you are working with.

 

1. Use an editing checklist

Any wordsmiths out there will know how valuable it is to use an editing checklist. This is what professionals use when they provide editing and proofreadingservices as it enables them to ensure that nothing is neglected when working on a piece of writing. No matter what type of document you have in front of you, having an editing checklist to hand will prove invaluable.

For almost all editing tasks, a standard checklist that can be applied fruitfully to improve the document will focus on the following issues:

·         Clarity

·         Concision

·         Punctuation mistakes

·         Spelling mistakes

·         Incorrect use of prepositions and conjunctions

·         Formatting errors

·         Consistent tense

·         Consistent tone

·         Subject-verb agreement

If you approach the editing task with a checklist like the one above beside you, you’ll find that you can edit almost anything!

 

2. Choose the right words and phrases, not the most complex-sounding ones

Oftentimes, writers will favour words that are complex or long, which is generally an unnecessary and undesirable practice. It’s understandable that writers sometimes do this, especially when they need to appear authoritative about the topic they are addressing. However, in writing, bigger is not always better.

When editing, therefore, if you keep in mind the general rule that you should aim for concise words and phrases rather than complex-sounding ones, this will go an extremely long way toward improving the quality of the document you are working on. After checking over the version of the document you edited using this general rule, the writer will likely be impressed as they will be able to easily understand what they previously wrote much more effectively than they originally could.

 

3. Kill your darlings

Being ready to “kill your darlings” – which is to say that you are ready to get rid of parts of your writing that you may be very proud of – is an essential part of the editing process. If you are willing to eliminate any sections of your document that don’t contribute to its purpose, and if you act on this during the editing process, you’ll be well-positioned to optimise any type of document you are working on.