REVISING & EDITING
The revising and editing process is critical to the success of any document. The fundamental purposes are to increase the accessibility, comprehensibility, and usability of any document, presentation or visual. Revising and editing are similar tasks and to avoid any confusion I will attempt to help clarify the main difference. Revising is described as the process of changing overall elements of a document while editing focuses more on the specifics and administrative details. There are 2 types of revision: global revision refers to reorganizing the overall document while local revision refers to individual paragraphs and sentences. In order to ensure an accurate and successful revising and editing process, one must pay close attention to detail and remain consistent on all technical elements. Also, for the most optimal revisions, it is suggested to write a draft, set it aside for awhile, and then go back and thoroughly revise and edit it. Figure 8.1 on p. 263 lists and describes the types of revising and editing. I will briefly describe each:
* Revising: focuses on global aspects of document (content, organization, design)
* Substantive editing: also focuses on global aspects
* Design review: focuses on the overall layout of the design of the document
* Copyediting: focuses on global and local aspects such as format and consistency
* Proofreading: eliminating typographical errors such as grammatical errors
* Administrative editing: focuses on aspects of compliance with the organization’s policies
There are 6 steps an individual must take into consideration regarding the revision process.
1. Get feedback--> ask yourself if you understand the feedback and if not, ask the reviewer to further explain
2. Assess feedback--> ask yourself if you agree with the proposed revisions
3. Make attribution--> ask yourself if the problem resides within the actual text or the reviewer
4. Test text--> locating the specific problematic place in the text
5. Set Goal--> deciding whether you want to fix the problem or leave as is
6. Select Strategy--> Define specific measures to alleviate the problem
**Finally, those 6 steps carry you through the basic revision process.
LEVELS OF EDIT
When editing a document it is important to keep in mind both convention and consistency. Conventions are described as things a particular group views as acceptable while consistency refers to ensuring a document stays within the convention guidelines. Successful editing can improve a document’s technical accuracy as well as present the given information in the most desirable way. Editing involves 4 functions and 9 sub-functions:
1. Content accuracy--> ensuring the content and information of a document is factual and appropriate
2. Design review--> includes both macro and micro levels of organization and overall design appeal of a document
3. Proofreading--> involves a vast amount of responsibilities and requires a thorough understanding of language appropriateness and grammatical knowledge
**In this stage, specific software may be utilized to help alleviate the overwhelming job of editing however; there are some limitations to these tools which include: software cannot identify inconsistent writing styles, confusing sentence structure, or inaccurate material, etc.
4. Administrative responsibilities--> requires knowledge of corporate policies and an understanding of the processes of production and publication
The 9 sub-functions include: substantive edit, format edit, integrity edit, mechanical style, screening edit, language edit, policy edit, clarification edit, and coordination edit. These levels of editing are very specific and can be performed by several people within an organization.
Important things to remember:
*Use concrete details: Concrete words are generally easier to understand and are more reader friendly than abstract words
*Use direct language: Use plain and simple language. Indirect language can be confusing and thus ineffective for the reader
*Use positive phrasing: Readers and listeners typically respond better to positively phrased words rather than negatively phrased words.
*Eliminate wordiness: Be sure and try to avoid redundancy
*Revise Noun Strings: Try and use additional words to help clarify the intended message. Although it will add words, it will eliminate any ambiguity.
Final thought: The proofreading stage is the final check for any inconsistencies or errors that encompass 5 broad areas: mechanical conventions, grammatical conventions, design conventions, disciplinary conventions, and typographical conventions. On p. 285, figure 8.9 there is a table with numerous proofreading symbols, their meaning, and an example of each.
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13 comments:
I agree that proof reading and editing a document is very important for the documents success. If a document is sloppy and has many mistakes it is difficult to understand what the writer is attempting to get across to you. I always have someone read over the papers that I write for this very reason. I usually give this person a rough draft in which they can make editing marks on. I then use this as a guide to go back through my document to fix the mistakes that I have made. By fixing any mistakes in a document, you give it a more professional manner.
I do believe that revising and editing is a critical step in making a project or document successful. If I am writing a paper, I do usually write up a draft and then I go back through or have someone else go through it and edit it for me. Many times I have to decide where I want certain paragraphs, or what fits best where. When I try to proofread my paper myself I usually read it outloud because if I just skim it in my mind, I usually miss things, like certain words such as "their or there" just little mistakes that can easily be missed, so reading it out loud really helps me. I also like to have someone else proof read my paper because they may see things that I miss on my own papers or may have different words that sound better in different places. Just by revising or proof reading documents or papers, it really can make a difference in the outcome and it does help make it more successful.
It's nice to get your draft done soon so you have plenty of time to thoroughly revise and edit. It's interesting to see how many things you can miss, especially if you're not an expert. It's always a good idea to have someone else read the material and give you feedback on anything that you miss.
I thought the part about readability formuals in the chapter was interesting. In a recent class we were told to use the readability formuala in word for a presentation to uneducated adults. I definitely know now that it was unnecessary because those formulas don't take into account a lot of elements.
I feel that proofreading is the most important part to a paper or an assignment. Microsoft Word may make some corrections but if it makes a gramatically correct sentence, then it passes through even though it may totally change the meaning.
I have always been a bit of a bad writer. I never have anyone proof read and I know its a bad idea. As I continue my college career I have gotten better and try to get someone to at least skim through it. I have been trying to write a outline first and go paragraph by paragraph with it an I find that it helps me write an effective paper.
This chapter relates a lot to my writing ability. Ever since I was young, I have always had my mother proofread and edit all of my writing assignments. Since she was a librarian, I thought my grade would be higher, which it was. I think because she was willing, I started to slack off on my writing because she would catch it. All aside from this, I think proofreading and editing is a must in any kind of technical writing. There are always mistakes that a writer cannot catch himself, and needs a second party to review. I think I said it in another comment from a previous chapter, two heads are always better than one.
I know that proof reading is a very important, but i never thought of it as a circlular process. I always do it in a linear manner. I write my rough draft, I have someone look it over or I read it aloud for my proof reading. Then I update it. I did know that you aren't supposed to just sit down and write a paper, that you are supposed to do it bit by bit at at time and go back and add things to what you have written before. I never thought of fixing a memo, because to me they were always informal communications usually.
Editing and proofreading are an essential step in creating a brilliant report. The mistakes that are fixed by proofreading and editing should be able to fix many small silly mistakes, along with many ideas that may have been taken out of context. Any time I have ever had somebody proof read my paper, they catch around 50 mistakes a time (not that I am just a bad writer, I am just mistake prone). Without proofreading and editing (even in math classes over problems) I would probably do much worse in every class I ever took. By following this step, it can make a mediocre paper become excellent with a few changes (depending on the paper of course). And a lot of time what separates an A and B quality work is the level of time put in by proofreading. I believe if anyone wants to truly succeed, that person must know how to proofread and edit because, as we all know, nobody is perfect.
This chapter seemed to have a lot of technical definitions of types of editing and stuff like that. Even though, knowing the meanings and differences of these are important, I think the more important part is the chapter as a whole itself - the importance of revising and editing documents. I consider myself to be bad writer. So whenever I want to write an article or paper, I usually just slam through the whole paper without caring about grammar or flow and stuff like that, I just let it out. That usually takes about fifteen percent of my paper writing time. The rest of my time goes into revision and editing. I let at least two other people read my paper. I think writing grammatically correct documents are important, but I think more important is the reader actually understanding the whole article itself as well. So undoubtedly for me, revising and editing of a document are the most important pieces of writing.
Content accuracy and consistancy are very important in the tech. documents where i work. Rereading helps me spot bad transitions or incomplete info in my documents, once i find them sometimes i'll get up and relax for a bit, roll over different revisions in my head a bit.
This is a very important aspect of acedemic writing. This is actually a harder part for me to do since after I write a document I have a hard time finding flaws. This isn't because I'm an outstanding writer by any means. It is just much more helpful to have a fresh pair of eyes to help find places for improvement. I also have a tough time being convinced by the reviewers criticism, which I guess would be a good thing for me to work on.
If nobody followed good revising and editing practices, technical documents, or really any document, would be practically unusable. It is also a great benefit to readability if, as this chapter discusses, everybody that contributes to a document follows the same layout.
Making sure that you proofread your document is crutial. You can lose a reader if you constantly make spelling or grammar mistakes. Having someone else read your material helps too. It allows for a "fresh' pair of eyes check your paper.
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