Advanced editing

Editing is a real skill, not one to be sniffed at. And being an editor of your own work isn’t easy — it’s actually pretty difficult. Indeed, lots of writing ‘fails’ merely because it hasn’t been very well edited: things haven’t been spotted. And I don’t just mean grammar, punctuation and typos, I mean problems of structure, tone of voice and content. So here are 13 advanced editing tips from me,...

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Effective Editing – 8 ½ Tips

Eight and a half tips that you may not hear anywhere else, but I can swear by: READ YOUR DRAFT WITHOUT A PEN OR PENCIL IN YOUR HAND – that way you will concentrate on the overall state of the work, rather than losing sight of these as you get involved in making detailed changes. (If you need to flag up passages for attention later, just use your pen/pencil for that.) ASK YOURSELF THE ‘BIG PICTURE’ QUESTIONS before you get sucked into detailed...

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Writing Tips – 20+ Expert Briefs and Training Courses

I have pooled together my training experience and tips from my book on Business Writing Tips into 20+ Expert Briefs on Writing.  Here is a list of the topics covered.  Contact me for copies of any of the briefs. HOW TO WRITE WITH EASE AND SPEED Effective writing is as easy as ABC Do your writing jobs take too long? The 5-stage POWER model is your answer Find writing frustrating? These 4 Ps will make it considerably easier ‘Less is...

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Common editing/proofreading errors … to avoid

Here are some of the commonest editing/proofreading errors I encounter when working on books, articles, etc.  Some of the editing/proofreading “rules” I suggest are fairly widely accepted, in other cases what really matters is having consistency across your document.  Tell me what you think of these… 1980s not 1980’s – the latter used to be common practice, but by and large have been dropped. MPs not MP’s – ditto. Abbreviations and...

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Punctuation explained – Simply

The paragraphs below explain each of the main types of punctuation.  But the punctuation is missing.  By doing this exercise you will therefore learn not only where and what type of punctuation to use, but also get practice in using it.  My suggested answers are given at the foot of the blog. Commas are used in lists of things to clarify meaning after introductory words and phrases like however (at the start or mid-sentence) when providing...

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Books I have enjoyed in 2016-17

One way to improve your writing skills is to read quality, well written books.  Here are a few books that I read and enjoyed in 2016.  They come with my recommendation (I ditched about half as many again).  Let me know what you think of them. The books marked * are relatively new (the Burnet book was on the Booker Prize shortlist in 2016); the others are older … but they are all worth reading. I know why the caged bird sings – Maya...

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