Blog From Cebu To The World

Edit, Edit and Edit

Edit is not a name of a girl.

Edit is what we bloggers (wannabe authors) should do after typing the first draft of our works. It is the polishing of our product, our written piece. Yes, there is the spelling checker, but what about the grammar and the sentence constructions? Sometimes we just write hurriedly and overlook the little yet common errors. What we think is acceptable, may not be so with others.

What prompted me to write this entry is that I saw a little yet embarrassing basic grammatical error in one of my posts. I only saw one but there could be more. It is easier to detect the mistakes of others than that of our own. When I edit business letters drafted by my staff, I usually end up rewriting the whole thing. And when I edit my own work, like short stories for instance, I often arrive at a different ending. Editing is not easy. How many times have we found errors in the papers we read daily or in our favorite blogs?

As one online writer friend from a forum said, “Edit, edit, edit”. So here are my suggestions as to editing:

1. Write, read, edit and edit – As I said, this is not easy as we are prone to overlook our own mistakes.
2. Use a spelling checker – This is very basic. But not all spelling checkers are updated with the latest of the internet terms.
3. Ask a friend to read and edit your work – But not all friends are competent or honest enough to give you feedback. They might even praise you for the jargons that they don’t understand.
4. Hire an editor – If you have money to hire one, why not? What are editors for?

Now, I just have to do no.1 and read all my previous posts. I can’t afford hiring an editor.

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Tags: Editing posts   Posted in Blogging, Writing