You might have considered this matter before, perhaps after a glance at the flood of online editing tips available to anyone with internet connection and an electronic device to write on. ’15 Best Editing Tips ‘, ‘7 Tips to Become the Best Writer that You Can Be’, ’10 Editing Tips You Cannot Do Without’, and so on, and so on. How one comes up with those numbers is still a mystery to me after my 40+ years of professorial experience. There is no magical checklist when the self-editing or professional editing process is concerned. Language-specific rules, yes. Red alert-areas, AKA areas to avoid, yes. Grammatical security blankets to cuddle with, yes. But a specific number to sum up ‘editing tips’, no.
Enough on this matter! What I would like to leave you with today is a simple request: Put yourself in the shoes of those online editing-tip-distributors (no offense intended, and myself included) and come up with your own “checklist” as far as what YOU would like to see in your written text. Remember to ask yourself the question “why” along the way.
Enjoy the self-empowering process of introspection when it comes to your own writing endeavors!
