Practice Your Editing Habits

Most student writers are still developing practical, efficient, and successful writing habits. Understandable, since college students are all student writers. (It’s not a disparaging comment – just the reality.) From my experience, most student writers have “acquired” a few bad habits or practices along with some pretty good skills.

One pervasive habit that persists is one attitude that limits success. It’s the attitude that first drafts are the best drafts. We develop this early since, as long as we can put subject and verb together, we do okay throughout school. But, with university-level writing, student writers learn that what they developed in secondary school may not get them by in college. Successful writing includes the need for improved grammar and mechanics can be combined with accurate word choice, clear and concise sentence structure, well-constructed paragraphs, and coherent organization.

This takes editing.

So, how much editing and how many draft do I need?

If you are writing a normal online board post, two edit “passes” will usually suffice:

– Edit for grammar, punctuation, and sentence errors, and

– Double check that you completely fulfilled all the board prompts and you have cited and added your references. This will usually work for a successful board post.

If you are writing a short essay (1 to 5 pages), five “passes” are needed:

1.Take your first draft and make three edit “passes” –

– The first for spelling, caps, and awkward words,

– The second for punctuation and sentence errors, and

– The third to make sure you have fulfilled the assignment instructions in your thesis statement. This becomes the beginnings of your final draft.

2. Then, take your final draft and:

– Edit for paragraph clarity and continuity between intro and conclusion, and a

– Edit a final pass that takes format into account. Is the title page correct? Do I have the margins and indentations in place? Are all my citations according to format? Is the Reference page complete and does it reflect my cited sources? By now, this should look quite a bit different from what you began with.

What about longer essays? Six-to-twelve pages need a more careful editing and proofing practice. 1) Grammar edit, 2) Punctuation edit, 3) Sentence and word choice precision edit, 4) Paragraph edit, 5) Section edit compared to thesis statement, 6) Continuity edit from first to last, 7) Format edit for APA or your academic style.

Beyond this, when you work on capstone projects, major theses, and dissertations (for those of you committed to the “long game” of getting your Masters and/or Doctorate – and I know some of you will and I wish my professors would have encourage me in this), all of the above and a hired editor are needed.

I know this sounds like a long process, but communicating well is worth it. Our world needs people who will write about the Truth (and the Way, and the Life) with compassion and intelligence!

I have attached a PPT that will take you further in the editing process. It’s short and will help you identify some habits that, by practicing good habits, will disappear. It’s one I developed for a college I teach for called Crown College. Check this out before you turn in the next essay.