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.
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 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
Feature Writing Contest Tips
Feature Writing Contest Tips
If you are a feature writer and preparing for the next Campus Journalism contest, here are some feature writing contest tips that will be useful for you.
1. Remember that your target reader in a feature writing contest is the judge or the judges (in Campus Journalism, usually there is one judge in each slot). So make him your ultimate consideration.
Every individual has different preferences, has varying likes and dislikes. Every person thinks differently. Every judge judges differently. If it’s possible, know him/her personally. Get an idea on how he thinks, or behaves. You will have an edge if you know the writing style your judge prefers or sees better than any other writing styles.
2. Just like what I’ve told my favorite feature writing student a lot of times: “write not of your age.”
She’s a very young writer, I started coaching her at the age of 9 and now she’s 13. I told her when she was in 4th grade, “Try to write like a 5th grader does.” When she was in 5th grade I advised her, “Write like a 6th grader writes.” Now that she’s a 6th grader, I gently push her “Write like a high school student would write.”
There is an awe created when readers or judges encounter a very well-written feature article and get doubled awed to see that it was a nine- or ten-year old who wrote it!
3. Compose your feature story so as to radiate a positive energy to the judges.
One thing young feature writers tend to overlook is the whole outcome of their feature story. Sometimes, if they are asked or assigned to write a story based on tragic, or saddening events, their stories will end up tragic and gloomy as well.
If you are to write a feature story on such topics that do not suggest a positive disposition, compose and end your story with one that still enlightens, motivates, and inspires.
For example: In a feature writing contest, you are to write a story on something that evokes hopelessness, end your story with a tinge of bright hopes. If you are to write a feature story on something that is full of grief or struggle, angle or end your story with a touch of comfort and peace. If you are to write a story on something that is anger-filled, compose and end your story in a way that would mellow down the wrath.
4. Joining a feature writing contest is not just a matter of mental preparation. You do not only need to study, gain and hone your writing skills, but you also need to prepare yourself emotionally, and if you are religious, spiritually as well.
A writing contest could be very stressful from the first few weeks before the contest to the actual one, and if you do not know how to manage the stress and pressure coupled with it, it will greatly affect your writing performance.
Even if you are so well prepared and came fully equipped with ideal writing skills but succumbed to emotional elements like nervousness, fear, and other psychological distractions, you would most probably under perform.
So before your actual feature writing contest, or even way before that, prepare yourself emotionally. Have a good and positive mind set. Brush away all negative emotions until you finished your story.
I hope these tips would help you succeed in the feature writing contest you are in.
Categories: Feature Writing Tags: Feature Writing Contest Tips
Feature Writing Taboos
Feature Writing Taboos
Feature writing is not that restricted as News Writing, Editorial Writing, or Sports Writing. You could do almost anything, write in almost any style, even the so-called free style, but it is wise to take note of some feature writing taboos to better your article.
In my years of writing and coaching young feature writers, I have learned and come to realize that there are such things as feature writing taboos. You just don’t master the language and grammar you will use in writing, and study and apply different writing styles in feature writing, but you also have to take into consideration some important things to avoid. The following are but some of them.
1. Don’t use Feature Writing as an outlet of your own feelings.
The most important person a good feature writer should consider is his target or intended readers. You are writing for them. Even if you are writing a personal feature story, you are still doing it for your readers, not mainly for your own satisfaction. Otherwise, the only reader you will be left with is your self alone. The only writing form in which you write for yourself is journal or diary writing.
In feature writing, you write for your readers, remember that. So consider your target readers’ feelings, study how they think, put your self in their shoes and know their preferences, intellectual capacity and so on. Do not make feature writing your outlet of your anger, disappointment, discouragement, distress, and what-not.
This is one of the feature writing taboos which some writers especially young ones, unawarely commit which puts their article in jeopardy, much more in a writing contest.
Remember again that your readers could sense the emotion your feature article radiates. They will sense if it is a self-centered piece or not. If it is and they feel it wasn’t written for them, you will fail in satisfying your target readers and then lose, if it was a writing contest.
2. Don’t overdo the dramatic touch in your feature story.
It is one goal of a good feature writer to extract certain emotions from his readers, except boredom. This is one of the feature writing taboos which I consider very challenging because the line between drama and cheesiness is very thin, so be very careful. The overdoing of the dramatic effect will be conspicuous and therefore be irritating and not convincing at all.
3. Don’t overuse vocabulary words.
Vocabulary words enrich a feature story if sprinkled wisely. Do not stud your story with big words especially when your feature is as short as a 250-word article.
Do not dazzle your target readers with high highfaluting or fancy words. Do not drive them into browsing the dictionary the whole time while reading your feature story. Just like a cliche in Journalism: Write to express not to impress. Otherwise,you will be defying the main purpose of writing, and that is to bring across your message and be understood.
Be very careful also in your choice of words. Diction is very essential. Choose appropriate words for your written thoughts and use vocabulary words profoundly.
4. Don’t try to include every single fact you’ve gathered.
Among the four feature writing taboos mentioned, this is the most critical one because most of the time, if a writer gets too excited in writing, especially when writing a narrative feature article, he overlooks this taboo.
It’s unnecessary to include everything. If your facts basically came from an interview or series of interviews it is suicidal to inject every idea given to you. If it is a personality sketch, it is foolish to write every single information about a specific person. If it is a travelogue, it is unwise to write down each part of the trip. You don’t need all the facts to come up with a wonderful feature story. Learn to narrow down, specially your topic. Learn to master the skill I call the “Art of Omission.”
Writers have this tendency to try putting down everything which compromises the feature story’s focus. They are sometimes reluctant to leave some facts behind. Even if certain facts actually happened in say, a narrative feature story, it is wise to omit them if they will steer your story in a different point, focus, or direction.
Another tendency: too much information barely elaborated will clog your feature story. “The more, the merrier” does not apply wisely in feature writing.
It will work to your advantage if you will take note of these simple yet important feature writing taboos.
Categories: Feature Writing Tags: Feature Writing Taboos, tips in feature writing