There are many people who offer themselves as editors because they are excellent academics or have a very good command of the English language. Very often, they do a pretty good job, too. Besides excellent English, the main requirements for an editor are an understanding of grammar, a fine eye for detail, patience, and common sense. But having a professional editor check your work gives you an undeniable edge. They are trained to look at minute details, to pick up the smallest of errors, to consider the possible inferences and consequences that may not occur to you, and to help ensure that your work engages and appeals to your intended audience.
Less is actually more when it comes to writing. You are more likely to hold the interest of your reader if you make your work as clear, correct and concise as you possibly can. It starts with you:
- Avoid awkward sentences and vary your sentence length. Always check that the meaning is easy to follow.
- Delete any unnecessary sentences and paragraphs. Ask yourself if they are really essential.
- Look for logical places to break up paragraphs.
- Remove all those adjectives and adverbs that simply aren’t needed.
- When you write something, understand that it is only your first draft. The fine-tuning comes later.
- Do everything in stages. Check your draft for content and consistency, then focus on grammar and punctuation.
- Read your text aloud – listen for rambling sentences that are awkward to say or difficult to understand.
- Don’t rely on your computer’s spelling and grammar check. And use the thesaurus sparingly, if at all.
When you’ve done all that to the best of your ability, hand your work over to an editor.
