01.03 Editing

The art of editing

There’s an old saying about how to carve an elephant. You take a block of stone and cut away anything that doesn’t look like an elephant.

The editing phase of writing is much the same: you start with a large chunk of text and cut away everything you don’t need for the final version. It’s hard work, but it can produce something worthwhile.

Note	This topic gives you a brief overview of the editing process. The Editing Deep-Dive module contains more detailed information on improving your first draft.

Getting some distance

$Image of two people connected by a red cord. One of them has scissors ready to cut it.$

The first thing to do when it’s time to edit is something completely different.

When you write something, you form a connection to it. You need to break that connection. Otherwise you’ll only see what you meant to write, not what’s actually there. You can’t fix what you can’t see.

Some ways to get that distance:

Give it time. Set the writing aside overnight. Or at least eat something or take a walk.
Change the medium. Print it out, read it aloud, look at it on your phone, change the font.
Read it backwards. Start with the conclusion and read toward the introduction.

(You may notice that there’s some overlap with the suggestions for getting unstuck while writing. Both are ways of breaking an emotional connection that’s in the way of what you want to do.)

Rewriting

Drawing of the lifecycle of a caterpillar and butterfly

The biggest part of the editing phase is rewriting: taking the same content and expressing it in a different, clearer way.

Rewriting your first draft can be really difficult. Rereading the text, you may think your writing is terrible. But remember that that was the intention: first write, then fix. You’re fine!

(And if it’s really terrible, that means that anything you do will probably improve it! I tell myself this often.)

Word choice

While editing, look very closely at your word choices. What words are you using? Why are you using them?

Your goal is that each word should mean one and only one thing.

Don’t use a single word to mean more than one thing. Otherwise your reader has to guess which one you mean at any given time.
Don’t use more than one word to refer to the same concept. Pick one and stick to it. Otherwise your readers may wonder why you’ve changed terms. They may even invent reasons and confuse themselves.

Both of these failure modes (puzzling over which thing you mean and seeking distinctions you didn’t mean) create cognitive load for your readers. They make your writing harder to understand.

Remember to update your word list as you make these changes.

Note	You can read more about this in the words topic in the Editing deep-dive module.

Sentences

Image of a chocolate orange with slices falling out

A lot of rewriting is breaking up huge sentences into bite-sized pieces.

Many people write very long sentences in their first drafts. And that’s fine! First drafts are for content, not style.

But if your sentences wander all over the place, going from one subject to another, your readers have to work harder to follow them. (And that’s cognitive load.) So you need to split them up.

The goal is that each sentence should contain only one fact. If there are two facts, make them two sentences. That way your reader can absorb the information one manageable chunk at a time.

Note	You can read more about this in the sentences topic in the Editing deep-dive module.

Paragraphs

Like sentences, first-draft paragraphs often go on and on, wandering from one topic to another. But in the final version, each paragraph should relate to only one idea.

Build each paragraph like you’d build a brick wall:

Choose the components that fit.
The first step in building a wall is to make sure you have bricks of the same type. In the same way, the first step in constructing a paragraph is to make sure you have sentences about the same idea. Set aside any bricks or sentences that don’t fit.
Arrange and connect them.
A pile of bricks is not a wall, and a collection of sentences is not a paragraph. The separate components have to be connected to form a coherent whole. The mortar of a paragraph is the connections between its sentences. This can be simple sentence order, or connective words and phrases.

Then repeat the process with the sentences you set aside. If they have a place in your document, it’s because they have their own separate idea or ideas.

Note	You can read more about this in the paragraphs and tables topic in the Editing deep-dive module.

Using weasels

Image of Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of a woman with a stoat. On it are superimposed the words 'RELEASE THE WEASELS'.

Separating the writing and editing steps means you get to use weasels to write the difficult things.

Yes, weasels.

In the writing stage, you can express your ideas vaguely. You’re free to use what Wikipedia calls "weasel words", such as maybe, sort of, and under some circumstances. You can lean on hand-waving words like this and it that don’t point back to anything in particular. And when you’re writing something that may be controversial, vagueness gives you a place to hide.
Then in the editing stage, you go from vagueness to clarity. Release the weasels from your text into the wild and make things clear for your readers:
- Take a stand about what’s true. No more maybes.
- If things aren’t simple, explain the complexity. Under what circumstances, exactly?
- Be specific: make it clear what every this and it refers to.

Both steps are challenging, but neither is as hard as writing something both true and clear in one go.

Structural review

Image of a building with wildly mismatching elements

Even if the individual parts of your document are perfect, they may not fit into the document as a whole. Time to step back and look at the big picture.

This is important whether you’re writing something new or updating something that already exists:

If you’re writing a new document, read through it like someone who doesn’t already know the subject. Does the order make sense? Does the text introduce concepts before it builds on them? Does it define new words and unpack abbreviations?
If you’re updating something, make sure your updates fit in with what already exists. Does the whole thing read like it was written by one person? Did you update everything that needed to be updated? Did you put your updates in the right places, given their level of detail and their context?

Proofreading

Time to clean up:

Repeated words you’ve repeated.
Words that missed.
1. Inconsistencies.
Sentences you meant to finish but

There are two things you should remember about proofreading:

Plan to do several passes, because every change you make can add typos.
Proofreading should be the last thing you do before calling your document finished.
Even then, you’re probably going to miss things. Take comfort that what you end up with is better than what you started with.

Getting help

No matter how hard you try, you’re still somewhat connected to what you’ve written. This means that you’re going to miss things as you edit. So once you’ve done your best, it’s time to get outside help.

Your ideal beta reader is:

Unfamiliar with the subject matter.
Honest enough to tell you where they’ve found problems.
Kind enough not to make you feel terrible while reporting those problems.

Although many developers think of beta reading as being like code review, it’s more like beta testing. Your reader is testing your writing, seeing whether it does what it’s supposed to do (take someone from a state of ignorance to a state of understanding).

Like other beta testers, beta readers are best at reporting where and how things went wrong for them. They don’t always have the "development" (writing) skill to suggest good solutions. Take that part of their feedback thoughtfully.

Note	It’s not fair to give your beta reader something that’s too rough, or that’s going to change too much. Make sure you’ve done as much as you can yourself before getting them involved.

Finishing

When are you done with the editing process?

Unfortunately, editing is like testing: you never finish. You just run out of time and stop.

If time is limited, you can stretch the testing/editing analogy further by using risk-based editing. Focus on the areas where there is a high probability of getting things wrong, or where mistakes would have a high impact.

In any case, remember that whatever editing you do manage to do improves the final product.

Exercise

To practice what you’ve just learned, do the editing exercise.

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