Strategies for
Editing
University Writing Center
Jaclyn Wells
Revising vs. Editing
We often use the words “revise” and “edit”
interchangeably, but they do differ.
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When you revise a piece of writing, you’re
typically looking at higher-order concerns like
purpose, structure, and development.
When you edit a piece of writing, you’re
typically looking at lower-order concerns like
spelling, sentence structure, and punctuation.
These types of concerns can become higherorder issues if they significantly affect the
meaning of your writing.
The Writing Process
Revising and editing are both important, but it
can be useful to make major revisions before
you edit. You want to make sure your ideas are
developed and that you’re addressing the
assignment prompt appropriately before you
begin looking at and playing with your writing
sentence-by-sentence.
Today, we will focus on editing. But do not
forget that revising for higher-order concerns is
also an essential part of the writing process.
General Strategies: Process
Give yourself a break
It’s nearly impossible to find errors when you’ve
been staring at the same essay for three hours.
You have to take a break before you return with
a fresh eye, even if you can only take 5 minutes.
Leave time
Many errors are made when we write and edit
quickly, or when we do not leave ourselves
enough time to edit after the writing is done. You
must leave yourself time to edit carefully and
separately from writing.
General Strategies: Reading
Read slowly.
Read through your draft very slowly. When looking for
errors, your eyes and brain can’t keep up with your
normal reading speed. You need to slow it down.
Read aloud
Read aloud to find errors you wouldn’t otherwise. This
strategy can also help you find sentences that are
technically correct but sound awkward.
Read backward
Read your paper from back to front to catch errors.
This forces you to look at your writing sentence by
sentence and can prevent your mind from making
corrections automatically instead of seeing errors.
Other General Strategies
Ask for help
It can be helpful to enlist the help of a friend or a
UWC tutor as you edit. UWC tutors will not edit your
writing for you, but they can help you find and
correct errors and refine your sentence-level style.
Be the reader
As best you can, put yourself in the reader’s place.
Imagine that you’re seeing this writing for the first
time. Taking a break can help you do this.
Track your patterns
Track the errors you tend to make. When you edit,
what do you find yourself correcting all the time?
When you get feedback from friends, teachers, or
tutors, what do they always seem to note? Keep a
record and check your writing against it.
Finding Common Errors
Below are some common errors you should look
for when editing. Even the most experienced
writers make such errors, especially when in a hurry
to meat a deadline.
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Spelling, particularly homonyms like
meet/meat
Left out or doubled words
Missing or unnecessary apostrophes
Apostrophes indicate possession and
contractions
Apostrophes not necessary to make words
plural
More Common Errors
You should also look for:
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Fragment sentences
Run-ons and comma splices
Subject-verb agreement
Verb tense consistency
Parallel structure
Pronoun usage
Dangling modifiers
Editing for Style:
Definite Actors and Actions
Clear and effective sentence have clear actors and
actions. In other words, readers should know who is
doing what. As you edit, look at each sentence and
ask, “Who is the actor? What is the action?”
Consider the following sentence:
On Halloween, children dress up as goblins
and princesses and go house-to-house to
get candy.
Here, the actor (or who) is “children.” The actions are
“dress up…” and “go house-to-house.”
Editing for Style: Strong Verbs
Sometimes, writers find themselves relying too
much on “to be” verbs: is, am, are, was, were,
been, and being. While there is (ha!) nothing
fundamentally wrong with using “to be” verbs,
replacing some of them with stronger verbs brings
life to your writing.
Consider the following edit:
The sun is really bright today.
The sun gleams brightly today.
As you edit for style, look for uses of is, are, etc.
Consider whether you can replace some of them
with stronger verbs.
Editing for Style:
Avoiding Passive Voice
A passive construction takes the actor out of the sentence.
Consider the following examples:
My husband burned our dinner. (active)
The dinner was burnt. (passive)
Though there are good reasons for using passive voice,
using too many passive constructions harms your writing.
Passive voice:
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Obscures meaning
Sounds unnatural
Overworks the reader
Distracts from the actor, action, and relationship between
Can sound shady, managerial, or weak
Editing for Style:
The Paramedic Method
Richard Lanham developed the paramedic
method for Revising Prose. This editing strategy
helps you make sentences more clear, concise,
and reader-centered. The paramedic method
provides a step-by-step process for cutting
unnecessary words, using clear actors and
actions, and avoiding weak and passive verbs.
Let’s try the paramedic method.
Practice
Let’s practice proofreading for correctness
and style with a sample paragraph.