Editing

I hear many people using "revising" and "editing" interchangeably. They aren't interchangeable, though. That's why they're two different words. I'm splitting these into two posts for the sake of length.

Editing is about consistency. Whatever else you are ever told, it always comes down to consistency. How come we have several different style guides for writing (Chicago, MLA, APA, etc.), but none of them are wrong? It's because there is no such thing as right and wrong. When it comes to editing, consistency is everything.

Editing is the polish that you put on a final work. If you want to do it, you have to make sure that all the little stuff is done so that it's smooth from front to back. Spelling is the first step. For the most part, we all spell the same, sothat should be no problem. If there's a word you don't know or the author is using an unfamiliar proper name, ask what the correct spelling is (or look it up). The next step is punctuation, which is trickier. Punctuation is the main separator of style guides. For any written work, there is one person who has ultimate discretion on punctuation. Whoever that person is, whether it be an editor-in-chief or it be the authors themselves, find that person and find out which rules to follow.

Generally, the next stage is to check for grammar or sentence structure. This is where I feel the need to deviate. The important focus is not on grammar but on sentence structure. We all too often think of "proper grammar" when it comes to looking at sentences. No run-ons, no fragments, no ending sentences with prepositions, no using "they" as a gender-neutral 3rd person singular pronoun. The problem is that "proper grammar" is terrible. It is stiff, rigid, and unforgiving. The amount of writing that you can't do by only following prescriptive rules stifles the language.

Learning standard English grammar is useful. It gives you a base to work with. It is your first style of writing that you learn. Just remember that it's a stepping stone. In time, you will learn that every person writes things in a certain way. Your job as an editor is to learn what an author's style is and make sure that everything they write consistently sounds like them.