editing other people's writing

I have been editing a lot of other people’s writing lately: my students’ first assignment and a close friend’s article drafts. Not only is it a delicious break from my own writing, especially if it’s a beautiful piece of work as was my friend’s fabulous analysis of zombie films, but it’s a great opportunity to hone my editing skills.

My students submitted the first (of three) concept papers early this month. I gave them the option to submit one of the three papers as a revised edit of a previous paper. This meant that I had to grade the papers differently. I ignored grammatical errors, unless they repeated consistently, and instead focused on structure and logical flow of argument. I didn’t “correct errors” but alerted the students to their weaknesses and strengths and sections where they can write with greater clarity. It took a bit longer to grade these papers but I knew the work I put in now will come back in the form of improved papers the next time around. At least I hope!

I used similar editing strategies when I read my friend’s article. I saw several incarnations of this piece, from point form notes to the final draft and at each point my friend asked me to read the piece in a certain way. For example, she asked that I comment on overall structure of argument in the point form notes. Later stages of the draft required more meticulous reading, such as sentence structures. As an editor, you have to be attuned to the needs of the writer at a given stage of their writing. There’s no point in correcting grammatical errors at the point form stage! What a waste of your time and their time. You can be spending that time to really pay attention to overall structure and “map” of argument.

While I edited my friend’s drafts, I also wrote the first working (rough) draft of one of my dissertation chapters. Being in the editing mind-space and writing at the same time proved to be extremely useful for me. I edited my own writing as I wrote, but in a different way than I did before (see Wednesday, August 27, 2008 post). I wasn’t hyper-editing to the point of censoring myself, but I would write and then look at what I’ve written to check for sentence structure (redundant? awkward? confusing?) and the sentence’s contirbution/role in the overall paragraph/section (necessary? flows logically? should be somewhere else?). I would “flag” sections I am uncertain about with a grey highlight (as I would when I’m editing someone else’s writing) and make comments to myself in Italics (“need better transition”, “put somewhere else?”).

I have a looming deadline for a working draft of my full dissertation (August!) and it’s easy for me to refuse doing anything else, much less work on other people’s writing. But it’s all part of improving and fine-tuning my writing skills at all stages of writing, which includes editing. There’s the added bonus of reading something other than my own writing (that I stare at day in and day out) and subject matter (look! zombies!!).