Editing: The Advanced Stage of the Writing Process
Ernest Hemingway claims to have edited and revised Old Man and the Sea more than forty times. Perhaps that's why it reads so effortlessly.

No one probably "enjoys" editing; like eating certain vegetables, it's something good writers get accustomed to, something for which they have to acquire a taste. Without editing drafts of your paper, you will inevitably miscommunicate or make yourself appear foolish. The appearance of carelessness--particularly in argumentative/persuasive essays--can cost you the argument of an otherwise well-reasoned position.

What to Edit? How to Edit?
Just the idea of editing the draft of your own essay forty times is probably mind-boggling. What in the world would you be looking to change in the 40th round of revisions? Maybe the difference between the student writer and a "Hemingway" is that the latter could still find something to improve after several drafts.

What to Edit?
What you edit for are problems which can defeat effective communication.

How to Edit?
Don't depend on finding every little problem in a single reading. Allow time enough to edit and revise several drafts--if you have that luxury of time! Most students don't. Given the time you do have, try to use it wisely. Develop a strategy for the editing/revision process. Here are a few suggestions to which you can add your own ideas:

1) Start with the development of the paper. Ask yourself, paragraph by paragraph, are you developing the thesis or the position of the paper? Each topic sentence should clearly relate in some supporting way to the main idea of your thesis or position.

2) Next, review the plan for the paper. Can you follow an evolving pattern of development? If the paper involves a section of comparison/contrast, have you developed the complementary points for each subject? If the paper involves directional process analysis, have you followed through with each step, isolating the instructions with appropriate headings and sub-headings to clarify the progression? (You get the drift.)

3) Edit specifically for the careless errors you know you always make. Perhaps it's subject-verb agreement or pronoun agreement. Maybe you have problems with spelling. The point is, take time to review your draft for just those embarrassing errors that you know you are likely to make which, if not corrected, will make you look foolish to a discerning reader.

4) Review your introduction and conclusion. Have you given your reader sufficient context or background in the introduction?  Have you effectively motivated your reader to appreciate your thesis or position statement? Does your conclusion provide sufficient closure to your discussion?  Have you done something more than merely summarizing your points?

These suggestions are probably already stimulating some ideas of your own. The key is to develop a patterned response to every composition you write. Only then will you be assured of successful communication.

Go to Exercise 8

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