Picture this scenario. You are getting ready for an interview, making sure your hair is nice and neat. You are freshly showered, and your clothes are pressed and ready to go. You decide to give yourself one last look in the mirror - only to find there is a big stain on your shirt. Oh, no! You quickly change shirts, dash past the full length mirror and see you are still in slippers! Oops. That was almost a big one. Into your dress shoes and ready to head out the door, you look over your interview papers and for the first time, notice this one sentence stating: 'This interview will be taking place at a cattle ranch. Please be sure to wear jeans, a tee shirt and athletic shoes.' Quick - back to your closet, throw everything off and get into the best jeans and shirt you can find and lace up those shoes. Sweating and tired, but grateful for the last look, you are finally ready to head out the door.
I know. It seemed like a lot of work, but each of those steps mimics what happens when we are editing our own writing. In this video, we will be walking through the process of self-editing.
When it comes to editing your own writing, there are two areas where we need to focus: 1) editing for content and 2) editing for mechanics.
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Editing for content is the first step. In our scenario of dressing for an interview, this really mimics the last thing we did - finally reading the paper and realizing we weren't quite dressed appropriately at all. Editing for content is ensuring that you are following the very heart and directions of the writing assignment given. Editing for content means you do three specific tasks:
Now that we have discussed editing for content, let's discuss editing for mechanics. In our interview scenario, this is similar to our noticing a stain on our shirt or slippers on our feet. It really doesn't have to deal with our understanding of the topic, but looks do matter. If mistakes that are simple to correct, like wearing appropriate shoes, are ignored, it makes people pause and wonder just how much time and effort you spent on the content. We often hear the phrase 'don't judge a book by its cover' and while that is really nice to hear, it just simply isn't the case. In fact, there is a reason why books we find in stores and online have such pretty covers. Taking care of the mechanics allows the reader to take their time with our content and truly read what we wanted to convey.
There are three areas we are going to look at when it comes to mechanics.
When it comes to self-editing, there are three general rules that allow the practice to go as smoothly as possible.
In this video, we covered why editing our own work is important. We covered three tips for editing for content, three tips for editing for mechanics and three tips for making your way through the editing process.
After watching this lesson, you should be able to:
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I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. It’s like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. I feel like it’s a lifeline.
