Tips in Effective Editing
Tips in Effective Editing
The following tips in effective editing would be helpful in times you might need some when things get a little tough doing your editing task.
To be able to edit effectively, you are required to have a lot of training, experience, and practice. Editing is an important skill in writing which does not come easily nor automatically even if you are a good and experienced writer.
Aside from being comfortable with the copy writing symbols or proofreading symbols, and with an appropriate style guide book (e.g. APA style guide), here are some helpful tips for you to edit effectively:
1. When you edit, it is best when you work with or come in constant contact with the writer of the essay or story you are working on. It is like an architect-engineer relationship. You may have both similar and different skills and roles, but you work together. You are a team. Never finalize without having a word or two with the writer.
2. Consider the target readers of the writer of the piece you are editing; in this way you will get an idea behind the ideas, facts, and writing style presented. If you know who are his intended readers then you will have a strong basis whether or not you will alter some of the ideas, facts, or the writing style used.
3. Do not hastily change a sentence or paragraph’s ideas solely based upon your own standard of writing or preference. If you feel a whole sentence or paragraph needs a major rewriting, you need to carefully find out why, and ask the writer what he meant by what he has written.
4. Do not do a major revising or rewriting unless you have fully understood the essay or story’s main topic, sub topics, and arguments. These are also your bases in improving such write up.
5. Every writer is different and therefore writes in various styles. It is important to try to think as the writer thinks so you could have a virtual piece of him while editing his write-up. Your own standard of writing are also necessary and helpful when you use them while considering the writer’s point of view. This best applies in articles with free styles like feature stories, and to those which the writer’s views and opinions are needed, stories like editorials and columns. If you are editing a news story, this tip would not apply at all times since your main basis for editing are the rules in news writing.
Among these tips in effective editing, this is the most challenging one because you need to get acquainted if not know completely the different writers you work with. It takes time and effort to know someone, more with a group of totally different people.
Since editing skills are a huge plus for a writer, work hard, train yourself, and get some significant experiences to gain such valuable knacks; surely these tips in effective editing will help you.
What is proofreading?
What is proofreading?
The simplest way to define “proofreading” is to break up the word into two: proof and read/reading. Proofreading is giving a “proof” that one has actually “read” an essay, article, or story after writing it. And one of the proofs that one has gone through such write-ups are corrections to minor errors like spelling, punctuation, capitalization, abbreviation, word breaks, spacing, paragraphing, indention, fonts, misplaced words or figures, and some slight mistakes on grammar.
Proofreading is another term for copy editing which has designated symbols for each correction.
Why is proofreading a must?
Never submit your essay, article, or story without proofreading it first. Once you have finished writing your final draft, go through it, read from beginning to end because for sure you will spot some mistakes which you did not notice while you were writing. This is so because while you are writing, your mind is mainly concentrating on what to write and how to write and arrange the ideas you have in mind. It does not really focus on small mistakes like the aforementioned. But these small mistakes count big time.
I have always emphasized to my feature writing student to be very careful with mistakes which seem very little in value. They actually have huge impact once you have committed and failed to correct those tiny errors. I told her those are manifestations of carelessness and simply not knowing the small things which she is supposed to and expected of her to know.
Proofreading is like cleaning up after you write. If you forgot or simply do not do it, or if you poorly do it, your essay or story will be as no good as a nicely and meticulously carved wooden statue without the finishing touches — varnishing.
At times, I feel so lazy to proofread. But I know it is an essential part of effective writing. The small errors left uncorrected which to some degree may be intolerable to your target readers, will sadly outweigh the thoughts, style, messages, and the time and effort put into writing. So do not underestimate the importance of proofreading. Usually, depending on the length of your essay or story, it would just take you few minutes to finish the task.
To be a good writer, you need to learn and develop the skill of proofreading even your own essay or story. It takes practice to have a keen eye for small mistakes while proofreading, so study how it works, get comfortable with the proofreading symbols and you will be many steps ahead!
Writing with Clarity
Writing with Clarity
Writing with clarity is fundamental. It is a must, otherwise you as a writer will fail in the initial objective in writing, and that is to bring the message across and be understood.
There are some important rules to follow to achieve writing with clarity.
- Provide proper antecedent for pronouns.
Example: My father’s black car was purchased a year ago from my uncle who owns a car dealer shop. Whenever he sees it, he remembers how thrilled he was with the car.
Who is referred to by the “he”? My father? Or my uncle?
The antecedent of pronouns should be stated out clearly specially when nouns used are the same in gender.
The sentence could be made clear when it is written this way:
My father’s black car was purchased a year ago from my uncle who owns a car dealer shop. Whenever father sees it, he remembers how thrilled he was with the car.
- Avoid the common sentence errors.
1. Sentence Fragment. This is basically an incomplete sentence. The thought is hanging or insufficient. This is only composed of the subject and it usually lack a predicate. This is a common mistake because it looks correct at first glace, but when you study it well, you will notice that there is something missing.
Example: Early in the morning, a man standing in front of my house with a bunch of flowers in her hand.
This sentence seems like a sentence with complete thought but look closely and carefully, the complete predicate carrying the verb is missing. It is only a “fragment” or a part of a sentence. If it was written in another way, it would’ve been a complete sentence.
Early in the morning, a man is standing in front of my house with a bunch of flowers in her hand.
The verb is makes it clear and correct. I only edited it. Since it is a “fragment of a sentence” it is not the verb is that is missing. Here is a complete version of the above sentence fragment.
Early in the morning, a man standing in front of my house with a bunch of flowers in her hand was run over by a car.
The “was run over by a car.” is the sentence’s complete predicate with “was” as the main verb.
2. Sentence Run-on
A sentence run-on is an error where two or more thoughts are inappropriately merged into one sentence.
Example: Last night as the rain poured so hard, a lightning struck an old, red car was parked next to a tree.
One way to achieve writing with clarity in this particular sentence is to split the two sentences:
Sentence 1: Last night as the rain poured so hard, a lightning struck an old, red car.
Sentence 2: An old, red car was parked next to a tree.
Omitting the main verb was would also make the sentence clear.
Last night as the rain poured so hard, a lightning struck an old, red car parked next to a tree.
- Take note of diction or the choice of words. Writing with clarity could be crashed all at once by words used inappropriately. If you are unsure on the meaning of a word, do not use it or refer to the dictionary first.
I watched “Gnomeo and Juliet” There was a dialogue between two characters who are enemies. It’s quite funny!
Gnomeo’s Mother: …you illiterate.
Juliet’s Father: I am not illiterate; my parents were married!
Juliet’s Father confused the word “illiterate” with “illegitimate.” They may sound alike but they are different words with way too different meanings. So be careful with your choice of words, or on how you use words. Otherwise you will sound silly to your readers, aside from fail in writing with clarity.
Writing with clarity could be a huge challenge to you as a writer because you might commit mistakes unawarely since these errors are common so study harder and practice more.
Keep browsing our website if you want to learn more on writing with clarity.
Challenges of a Writer
Challenges of a Writer
Like in any other fields, there are challenges of a writer as well. If an endeavor is not taken with a challenge or simply done with pure ease, it will be less than fulfilling. One should one way or another, shed sweat and tears in order to feel the genuine essence of achievement.
1. The Topic. The first challenge a writer must face is the topic itself, specially if it is an assigned topic in school or at work. If you fail in surmounting this first challenge, these is no way you will finish your story or essay with success.
2. The Moods. If you do not train your self to write in whatever situation, you will just be controlled by these so called “moods.” If you are not “in the mood” to write, then you couldn’t write. But this is not how a good writer must be. You should beat those moods. Whether the writer “feels like” writing or not about the topic, he must come up with a well written piece.
3. The Motivation. Writing could be boring at times — that is if you are not motivated. The challenge a writer must likewise face is where and how to get the right and sufficient motivation he needs to go on with writing. Your motivation or inspiration could be your family, friends, kids, fulfillment, or even the monetary satisfaction.
4. The Readers. Among these challenges of a writer, I believe this is the toughest because you need to satisfy, enlighten, educate, entertain, persuade, or convince your intended readers. And those six verbs are very hard to successfully accomplish, specially when your target readers are a group of hard-to-please people or a bunch of folks with their cups already full.
5. The Focus. In any subject matter, not just in writing, uniting fragments or making things in harmony with each other is such a tough challenge. It is challenging to unite a community, more with a whole mankind. In writing, one of the hardest challenges of a writer is sticking with the core topic, weaving all gathered details and facts, presenting ideas or thoughts in one accord. A good analogy: a spider meticulously and laboriously knitting its delicate thread to produce a stunning work of art — its cob web.
These could be your stumbling blocks if you do not consider and study them, that is why it is essential to understand and learn to overcome these challenges of a writer.
Why Writing Skills are Important
Why Writing Skills are Important
Why writing skills are important? Unlike any other skills, writing skills are important universally. They are needed in any field, or endeavor one is. And since there are only two way (speaking and writing) by which can express one’s feelings, thoughts, desires, and intentions undoubtedly these skills are essential. Everyone should aim and strive to possess and develop these skills.
- Writing skills are important in personality development since it says a lot of things about you. Your characters or behavior could be mirrored by the way you write, or how well you write.
- Writing skills are important in any field of business, wherein almost everything is recorded — transactions, inventory, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly reports, marketing strategies, historical reports, operational system, SOP’s..everything.
- Writing skills are important in career building. Name a successful person in his respective career who do not have essential, appropriate, and sufficient writing skills. I bet there is none.
- Writing skills are important to students. Teachers and professors give tons of paper works to students. No one gets away with it; from kindergarten to elementary to secondary to tertiary levels to graduate studies. That is one essential way to assess a student’s performance, progress, and intelligence.
- Writing skills are important in job hunting, starting with writing an effective and believable resume or biodata to writing or essay tests after a job interview.
- Writing skills are important in being accepted in your ideal school or university. School or college admission essays are one vital basis of one’s acceptability.
- Writing skills are important in expressing one’s feelings and be understood. Some if not all are more comfortable conveying their emotions in writing rather than in speaking. Besides, one cause of depression is being misunderstood.
- And however cheesy it may sound, writing skills are important in winning a someone’s heart.
Writing skills are achieved through time and hard work, that is also one reason why writing skills are important. Just how gold is — it undergoes extensive, lengthy, and laborious refining process.
Essay Writing Taboos
Essay Writing Taboos
It it wise to learn some important essay writing taboos not just the elements of a good and well-written essay. You will have an edge if you know the things you need to avoid.
Here are some essay writing taboos you should consider while writing your essay:
1. Do not make up things. Essay writing is a nonfiction type of write-up. It is factual, based on general truth, theories, . You could write down your opinion but it should backed up by supporting details. Your readers will notice it when you are basically lying, if not, because you write folly things so well, it is still not a good idea.
2. Do not write using your stock knowledge only. An essay is not supposed to be limited by the knowledge you already know. Do some research, intensive is better. Read books and other printed materials related to your topic or thesis statement.
3. Do not under or over support your argument. Do not over-support your argument specially when you are writing a short essay and vice versa. The trick is “just enough.” Sometimes, you do not notice at once if have committed this taboo, so let others read your essay and ask for feed backs.
4. Do not write an essay on something you are not knowledgeable about. There is an exemption to this. If the topic is assigned to you, whether you know about the topic or not, you still need to write about it, therefore study and do some readings and researches about it.
5. Do not be obliged to agree all the time. As the one writing the essay, you still have a voice in your write-up. You could express your opinions and views about the assigned topic, argument, or the supporting details you will come across with during your readings or researches. You can disagree, if you really feel like it, just concretely explain why and present supporting details.
Among these essay writing taboos, this one is the most critical because this means taking a risk. Your readers might raise an eyebrow on your brevity of disagreeing on experts’ wisdom or a universal truth. So be prepared to take this challenging move and strongly and believably defend something you do not agree on.
To be able to compose a well-written and plausible essay, take note and remember to avoid these essay writing taboos!
Categories: Essay Writing Tags: essay writing, essay writing taboos, tips in essay writing
Characteristics of a Good Writer
Characteristics of a Good Writer
As promised,here are some characteristics of a good writer, a post similar to my previous one entitled Qualities of a Good Writer. But this one will give you additional ideas on what characteristics you need to attain to become a good and effective writer while is it enriched by great quotations from great writers.
There are a number of characteristics of a good writer, here are but a few of them:
1. Patient. Good and effective writing do not come overnight. You need to be patient. Good things happen when you wait and have an anticipating heart.
“Beginning writers must appreciate the prerequisites if they hope to become writers. You pay your dues—which takes years.”–Alex Haley
“Start early and word hard. A writer’s apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he’s almost ready to begin. That takes a while. –David Eddings
“However great a man’s natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.” –Jean Jacques Rousseau
2. Hardworking. Every good thing one attains could be attributed to his hard work. If you work hard in your desire of being a good and effective writer, and not cheat or turn to undesirable shortcuts, you will have this feeling of fulfillment — one that money can’t buy…only through hard work.
Besides, writing is not always easy. It is challenging. It is not that easy to formulate ideas, convert ideas into words, construct good and comprehensible sentences and paragraphs, more so to create a strong and good influence to your readers.
“Writing is physical work. It’s sweaty work. You just can’t will yourself to become a good writer. You really have to work at it. –Will Haygood
“Easy reading is hard writing.” –Nathaniel Hawthrone
“When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.” — Enrique Jardiel Poncela
2. Adaptable or Flexible. As a writer, specially if you’re still a student, you will not be able to choose all the topics you need to write about. Half of them if not all would be picked for or assigned to you. There could be negative moods that may prevent you from performing well in writing but you should beat and overcome those.
“I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing when you do that. Your mind must know it has to get down to work.” –Pearl S. Buck
3. Inspired and Motivated. You need to have an inspiration in order to be motivated in writing. But you should not always depend on inspiration. Do not make this the only basis whether or not you can produce a good story or not.
“Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time… The wait is simply too long.” –Leonard Bernstein
4. Passionate about writing. Just like what I have mentioned in my post Qualities of a Good Writer, you must have a passion in writing. Among these five characteristics of a good writer, this is the most important one because once you have this, a love and passion for writing, everything else comes with it — you will be willing to be patient, hardworking, adaptable or flexible, and inspired and motivated.
“Obsession led me to write. It’s been that way with every book I’ve ever written. I become completely consumed by a theme, by characters, by a desire to meet a challenge.–Anne Rice
“You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer.” –Stephen Leigh
“Only write from your own passion, your own truth. That’s the only thing you really know about, and anything else leads you away from the pulse.” — Marianne Williamson
You really can’t tell the exact time, day, or moment when you can exclaim “Tadah! I’m already a good and effective writer!” For me, becoming one is a continued and never-ending process, as there is always room for improvement and learning never ends.
So continue on learning, continue on writing, continue on gaining and enhancing the characteristics of a good writer!
Qualities of a Good Writer
Qualities of a Good Writer
There are qualities of a good writer which you should learn to possess and develop.
If you want to attain them, you need to be determined and committed in doing whatever it takes that would help you better your writing skills. It would take a lot of work and practice.
The qualities of a good writer do not come overnight, much more when you want to gain the qualities of a better writer. There are differences between a good writer and a better one.
You need to have lots of writing experiences, so you could hone your writing skills and learn from your experiences. A good writer’s teacher is also his personal experiences.
Here are some helpful tips in your quest of being a better writer:
- Have a passion in writing. Everyone gets good, better, and eventually best in whatever endeavor one chooses if he is but passionate about it. You should not write just because you needed to, but because you loved to. If you do not love writing, then learn to like it first. Forcing yourself to do something you do not like would not give you good outputs. When you force yourself to write, it will radiate into your writing, your readers will feel and notice it, and most probably, you will not be successful on being an effective and good writer.
- Learn some simple writing styles and then apply in into your writing. Browse the internet, do some researches. There are tons of tips on the internet on how to attain and hone writing skills and be a good writer. And they are mostly for free! Take note of them, remember them then apply them into your writing.
- Learn from good writers. Read and study their stories or write-ups. Find out what writing styles they use, how they compose their sentences and paragraphs. You may also want to check out the words they use, check how they enrich their piece with appropriate vocabulary words. Take a close look at their diction, or their choice of words as well. Find out if they use other writing gems to improve their writing. Do they use Figures of Speech like metaphors? Similes? Personification? Hyperbole? How do they use them? You may adopt their style just for a guide, then later on if you have already mastered it, you could create your own writing style that is unique and ideal.
- You should be persistent and determined. Your stories or write-ups may not come out as you expected, but never give up. If you give up too early, too soon, then that’s the end of your progress. You will never reach your goal of being a good writer. Continue on writing. It does not come in a wink of an eye. Be patient.
These are but some of the qualities of a good writer. Study harder and find out more.
Watch out for more articles coming up on the subject: Qualities of a good writer.
How to write a good essay
How to write a good essay
In order to write a good essay, there are a number of important things you need to take note of.
1. The first thing you need to do so you can write a good essay is to analyze the given question or the essay topic. Once you have misunderstood it or poorly examined it, it will lead you to a wrong direction and make your essay disconnected from that your teacher or professor wants you to touch on or write about.
2. You should have a well-composed and concise thesis statement. Teachers or professors give much emphasis on the thesis statement. They scrutinize it because it is like the heart of your essay. It is where all the rest of your sentences or paragraphs revolve around. The argument it carries should be strong and be persuasive enough, if it was a persuasive essay you are writing.
2. The facts you present on your essay should be strong and believable. Present it also in a an equally strong and believable way. A nature of anything could be changed by the way it is presented. Even if your facts are strong and believable by nature if you presented it poorly, it will also be perceived poorly.
3. You should have well-supported arguments, specially the argument laid down in the thesis statement. Present enough back up information.
4. Your references should be equally good. A well-written essay for a school assignment should be done with thorough researching and wide reading. Read from and refer to reliable sources.
5. Clarity is also a must. Even if you presented strong facts and good references if you presented it ambiguously, you will fail to write a good essay anyway. The clearness of the way messages are brought across in any form of writing is critical. An idea could be presented and perceived in totally different ways. Make sure your readers do not misunderstand the facts, arguments, and ideas you present in your essay.
6. There should be unity in your essay. The thoughts, arguments, supporting arguments, and details should be intertwined with each other. They all should be strongly connected with your thesis statement.
7. Follow the 3.5 essay format or style. It is an ideal format in essay writing. Learn its ins and outs and be guided to write a good essay.
The previous article I have posted entitled Tips in Essay Writing should give you additional important ideas that would enhance your essay.
Study more and do a lot of writing because it requires more than tips to be able to write a good essay.
Categories: Essay Writing Tags: essay writing, good essay, improve essay, tips in essay writing
How to Improve Writing Skills
How to Improve Writing Skills
To improve writing skills and be a better writer, you must be determined to do the requirements. It may be tough at some times and could take you a while, but it would be worth it. Be patient. Good things happen when you are.
But here are some easy and simple tips that would help you improve writing skills.
- The first key to improve writing skills is to have a good command of the language you intend to use in writing. If you are to use your second language, master it first. Study its grammar, and sentence and paragraph construction. If you are to use the English language, study its Parts of Speech, verb tenses and parallelism, syntax, etc. This may take years which possibly start from your preschool years. But even if you are writing in your mother tongue, you still need to do further study to master it and be better in writing using it.
- After gaining a good command of the language you will use, increase your vocabulary. If you are really serious in increasing your word bank of say, English words, make reading the dictionary your new and bizarre habit. I remember, when I was in 2nd year high school and was reading a pocket dictionary, another student stared at me. I sensed he finds me a bit silly reading a dictionary. But it was worth it. That practice, increased my vocabulary, and the new words I learned from that day, I still use until now.But do not just read, study. Get a notebook and write down the new words you learned with its meaning, and pronunciation. After studying them, apply them. Otherwise you will forget those new words. Use the new words in sentences, write it down in your notebook, or better yet, use them in the articles, stories, or essays you are writing.
- The next thing you need to do to improve writing skills is to read. A lot. A good writer should also be a good reader, not necessarily a book worm, but someone who likes if not loves to read. But do not just read like any everybody else does. You are a writer, read like one. Go beyond reading for what the story is about. While reading, you are studying. Dissect. That’s the perfect word. Look into writing styles, choice of words, vocabulary words, grammar and composition etc. Learn from good writers, study their well-written write-ups.
- Write, write, and write. This is a must if you really want to improve writing skills. Make writing a daily habit. If you skipped a day or worst, couple of days without writing anything, your writing skills will turn dull just like a knife that is left unused, that gets blunt, rusty, and eventually useless.
- Ask for feed backs. Other people’s opinions regarding your essay or story are important. To improve writing skills is getting constructive criticisms and applying them. Just like the principle of the Johari Window: there are things which other people know or see which you do not see and vice versa. They could spot an error or something you can improve which you do not notice.
- Learn how to proofread, rewrite, revise, and edit. There’s a difference between a good writer and a better one. A good writer is one that writes wonderful stories or essays, a better writer is one that also knows how to proofread, rewrite, revise, and even edit his own write-up or others’.
Consider these important tips and through a lot of work and experience, you will surely improve writing skills!
Categories: Essay Writing, Feature Writing, Speech Writing, Writing Skills Tags: enhance writing skills, improve writing skills