Editing on the fly

I have a rather unorthodox editing method I’m been implying since the end of the previous semester last spring, and I would like to share it with you.

This is solely my method, and I wouldn’t necessary recommend it to anyone else. If you have ever read my blogs, you would understand that editing has never been my forte. 

Whenever I finnish an assignment I go through an editing process that covers the three major editing checks in a disjointed sweep through different mediums. 

The first edit is for content. That happens upon the completion of my assignment, when I’m more concerned about checking what’s upstairs in the fridge. After I return belly full, I sit down at my computer and slowly comb through my work like I was reading it for the first time. I check for thought progression, clarity in voice and patch up any holes or obvious questions that I’d neglected to mention. Not an easy task, but I’m improving.

The second edit is for style. This is important in making sure that the language chosen for this particular piece hasn’t become tangled and twisted with tired eyes and mind late at night. This edit happens in the morning and rightfully so. First thing after the my first sip of coffee and the cold air’s window of opportunity to ravish my face, I hop on the bus and ensure my language is fit for my audience and fit for me too. I don’t like boring writing, and appreciate it more when it has a little flare. Some rhythm, little spice.

Of course I couldn’t do this without my iPhone. Technology is a blessing. I couldn’t imagine having to type my papers out on a typewriter and hand in an error-free document. I don’t believe I can get through a single sentence with out hitting the backspace key at least half a dozen times. There is no way. I would have had to be a plumber or something man kind was still confined to the manual typing machine. (No offense to plumbers or typewriter enthusiasts)

Finally I do my edit at school, where I sit in the Mac lab with my headphones on, blasting that 90’s gangsta rap. I don’t know why, it just seems to help me concentrate, as I sit there and comb through each individual word looking for errors. They can be as small as an apostrophe or big as a wale! 

That las’t wale was on purppose. 

So was that.  

The point is, is that for my third edit I sit there with a hard copy, reading line by line, word by word and letter by letter making every tinny tiny correction I need to make as to salvage some of my credibility as a communicator. 

Finally after three edits, I feel confident enough in my work to publish it to the world, or hand it into an instructor.