Be Your Own Best Editor

            After you finish an article or book chapter you now need to perform surgery on it. What do I mean? I mean you have to put it under the microscope and take it through the revision process.

This editing process boils down essentially to Say It Clearly and in the fewest number of words. Here are a few tips.

What did I mean by that? This is the first thing I look for as I go back through my manuscript hopefully for the last time. The example I like to use is the one I found in a magazine ad years ago.  The pices biota exhibited a 100 percent mortality response. You never write it that way, you look it over and ask, what did I mean by that? Then write it that way. In this case, the writer meant, “the fish died.”

Throat clearing: These are useless words you throw in before you start your thought or you modify it with: In the first place, At this time, Constantly, Feeling good I, I found myself saying. Just start.

Useless modifiers: very, really, constantly, truly, essentially                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       and so forth. They add nothing.

Redundancies: tiny little baby—little baby or tiny baby is fine or just baby—long distance telephone call—how about long distance call—personal friend…if someone is a personal friend, friend will do