Editing Your Writing
You found the time and motivation to write! Now you need to edit your writing to make it clearer to readers. This is a natural part of the writing process. Here are a few things to think about as you work on improving logic and argument, length, and organization:
Editing for logic and argument
- As you read through your work, think from your reader’s perspective. What might be unclear to them?
- Ask friends or colleagues to review your work before it goes to peer review. You can ask for a general review or ask for their feedback on specifics (i.e. do the subsections in the discussion The section of a research article where the researchers analyze and interpret the findings. This section provides the “so what” for the research conducted. section make sense?) Asking colleagues familiar with your topic as well as friends who have no prior knowledge can be very helpful in different ways. Here are some broad questions you might ask them:
- Which critical ideas or concepts am I missing?
- The section I struggled most with is x, for y reason. Do you see that? How could I clarify?
- What is the strongest part or section? What should I keep or emphasize?
- In her Librarian Parlor post, Rachel Miles recommends speaking your writing aloud so that you can identify convoluted sentences or unclear ideas. This is a great editing strategy.
- If you are submitting your work based on a CFP or publication venue’s open submission call, carefully review the guidelines and requirements as well as your initial proposal if you submitted one. Does your piece adequately address all these elements?
Editing for length
- What is extraneous and needs to be cut or refined?
- Are you repeating yourself in several different places?
- If it’s difficult for you to cut parts of your writing, consider using a “parking lot,” a document where you jot down things you’re thinking about deleting. This will help you see if your piece is stronger without the content without actually deleting it.
- Are there areas that could be cut and used for a different piece altogether? If you’ve already thoroughly acknowledged all the parts of your proposal or items that a CFP has requested, you may want to cut some parts and rework them into a different article or publication down the road.
Editing for organization
- Do you work better with a pen and paper? Consider printing out your work and marking things up by hand. Highlight sections that benefit from rewriting or that still seem unclear.
- If it’s difficult to look at the whole work in one sitting, try breaking it up into sections and outline how each section serves the larger work. If the section does not align with your outline or doesn’t quite make sense, that will indicate the need for a rewrite. You could also separate each section into a different document if that helps you focus on one part of your work at a time.
- Instead of addressing every issue at once, it might help to categorize your edits so you can do it in rounds — maybe round one focuses on voice and clarity, while round two addresses peer feedback, and so on.
Remember to build enough time in your research schedule for editing and revising — sometimes it can take longer to do this process than it did initially when you wrote your piece. Consider looking back at the project schedule you outlined using the 2.2.3: Planning Your Research worksheet in your LPOL Workbook. If you haven’t filled it out already, do so now and think about where in the process you plan to work on editing and revision.
This stage of the research process can often be frustrating, so be sure to take breaks away from it once in a while. Looking at something with fresh eyes or after you’ve worked on something else for a bit can help you refocus and feel ready to take on another round of editing.
Topic 4 References
Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1995.
Miles, R. “Jumping into Academic Writing and Presenting.” The Librarian Parlor. 2018. https://libparlor.com/2018/08/08/jumping-into-academic-writing-and-presenting/
Rankin, Elizabeth. The Work of Writing: Insights and Strategies for Academics and Professionals. Jossey-Bass, 2001.
Editing Your Writing
You found the time and motivation to write! Now you need to edit your writing to make it clearer to readers. This is a natural part of the writing process. Here are a few things to think about as you work on improving logic and argument, length, and organization:
Editing for logic and argument
Editing for length
Editing for organization
Remember to build enough time in your research schedule for editing and revising — sometimes it can take longer to do this process than it did initially when you wrote your piece. Consider looking back at the project schedule you outlined using the 2.2.3: Planning Your Research worksheet in your LPOL Workbook. If you haven’t filled it out already, do so now and think about where in the process you plan to work on editing and revision.
This stage of the research process can often be frustrating, so be sure to take breaks away from it once in a while. Looking at something with fresh eyes or after you’ve worked on something else for a bit can help you refocus and feel ready to take on another round of editing.
Topic 4 References
Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1995.
Miles, R. “Jumping into Academic Writing and Presenting.” The Librarian Parlor. 2018. https://libparlor.com/2018/08/08/jumping-into-academic-writing-and-presenting/
Rankin, Elizabeth. The Work of Writing: Insights and Strategies for Academics and Professionals. Jossey-Bass, 2001.