Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
We've come to the end of the course, and we hope you've gotten some valuable advice on how to be a better, faster, happier editor. To cap things off, we'd like to give you a few additional general suggestions from the editors at Scribendi.com. Then we'll provide you with some additional suggestions for increasing your speed.
"Comprehension is key. If you don't understand what the author is trying to communicate, you can't help him/her get it out clearly. Making robotic word replacements (e.g., changing 'but' to 'however') isn't enough. I used to mentor new editors, and this was what I tried to impress upon them, because they would work on an ESL job that required heavy editing and often just change obvious errors and stylistic missteps (e.g., making informal words more formal . . . like 'but' vs. 'however'). So, I would ask them, 'What does this sentence mean? What is the author saying?' If they didn't know, then they would realize that they hadn't actually edited that sentence, and we would figure it out together."
"Keep a folder of style guides from online sites and hard copies; back up long jobs and all jobs. Dress for work, even if you work at home; wearing pajamas makes you feel unprofessional."
"Sometimes, when a document is exceptionally poorly written, you just need to give yourself permission to assume the meaning and edit heavily. In this case, you'll probably need to leave lots of 'Check meaning' comments."
"When editing, be careful not to compromise your client's style and personality, no matter how many changes are necessary. The main business is to improve flow and clarity, but the author's voice should always be loud and clear. Your voice should not be heard (other than in your comments)."
"Try to block off times where people can't disturb you. Send your spouse and little one(s) for a walk (far away!). Get pets settled in some other room. Close the door if you can hear the TV or talking from another room."
"I think that ESL documents are some of the most challenging types of files for many editors. I'm pretty persistent when it comes to incomprehensible statements. I would say to try to recognize patterns in the way (for example) Asian clients express themselves. If you write these down, eventually recognizing and recalling them will be more automatic. For example, one of the patterns of Chinese authors is that they always try to squeeze in a 'which' clause at the tail end of a sentence. Chances are the word or phrase immediately before the clause isn't the referent, making the clause ambiguous. Also, I often apply edits outright because when I indicate the changes as suggestions in a comment balloon, sometimes the clients don't understand what I mean or what they should do to improve a sentence. By editing outright, I sort of demo how a sentence should look. I then place a note saying that the authors can treat the changes as placeholders and substitute the words with what they had intended to say."
"When there is a choice, take tasks on topics you really enjoy or that really mean something to you. For example, I really feel for kids trying to get into college and give admissions essays my best effort. They almost never feel tedious."
"Be careful about client instructions, prioritizing, and knowing your limits. Don't get so focused on one thing that you miss the big picture."
"Always give your first positive comment somewhere near the front of the document (even in a tough document, an encouraging remark can nearly always be found.) Since there are often a multitude of changes (which the client will be expecting—especially with ESL), it's nice to occasionally give them boosts as well as boos. My thoughts are that we need to improve our clients' documents, and point out where they are going wrong, but we also need to let them know when they get it right."
The faster you can work without sacrificing quality, the better living you can make. If you follow the suggestions laid out in this course, you'll improve your speed and efficiency. Here are a few additional tips:
"Don't agonize over every sentence; don't get sidetracked in your researching (e.g., spending too much time looking around on various web sites); set realistic goals and try to beat them. Evaluate a document for condition, make a realistic prediction for how long it will take, and then measure yourself against it."
"Don't spend too much time worrying/second guessing yourself. If you aren't sure of a change, look it up or ask a coworker if possible, but don't spend too much time researching or hemming and hawing over it. If you really aren't sure, leave a comment with a suggested change. You can also still make the change and query the client to check you haven't changed their meaning. Also, while leaving comments is good, there is no need to explain every little change or to repeat the same explanation over and over—and this isn't really useful to the client anyway. Leave only comments that are necessary and helpful, and if you are making a change throughout the document, you need only note it once and can state it applies throughout."
"I found that moving the Quick Access Toolbar closer to the document (the default for Microsoft Word 2010 is at the top of the screen) meant less time moving the mouse to various icons that I regularly use. Furthermore, because I use a widescreen monitor, I found it best to fill the Quick Access Toolbar with less important icons first so that as the toolbar fills from the left to right, the important icons are directly above the document, further minimizing the time to move the mouse to repeatable functions."
"It is crucial to know how to type. I learned this skill back in high school, when I took keyboarding in grade nine, and it stuck with me, even though I didn't own a computer until a few years later. If you need to look at the keyboard, or you don't know how to position your fingers, you will work much slower. Other than that, speed takes time to develop, no matter how good you are at your job."
"If I get stuck on something that can't be solved easily—say, how to rephrase a sentence—or if I can't come up with the right word, or if I find that I'm spending too much time on something, I highlight it and come back to that part after my first pass. When I get to the end, I go back and figure out the highlighted areas."
"Don't work when you're too tired."
"I had a funny little system for a while for longer tasks, and I still use it occasionally. I open stopwatch.com and set it to buzz every five minutes. I work for the first five minutes to see how far I get and then try to do that amount every five minutes—kind of like a little challenge. It is more useful for proofreading than editing. Maybe a ten-minute system would work better with editing."
"Try to predict what the rest of the sentence will say before you read it; this may help when making corrections. Avoid re-writing as much as possible and put yourself in the client's shoes . . . try to keep their voice."
"I think it's easier to edit documents with content that you are at least somewhat familiar with. This will decrease the number of things you are unsure about or have to look up."
"Avoid making unnecessary changes to format."
"Always edit without any tracking showing (tracking turned on, of course, but not displaying). With a jungle of changes on display, it's just too hard to know where you are and you'll get lost in the vines. Not only that, you'll work slower and make mistakes. Now and again, show the tracking to ensure you haven't accidently turned it off or anything disastrous like that (you'd be amazed at what you're capable of when tired)."
"Try to avoid cyber loafing . . . if you are checking out a web site, make sure that you are doing it on a scheduled break to avoid getting distracted and losing track of time. This also applies to cell phones. Try not to get distracted by text messages or e-mails during your work day since this could also waste your time. Try to use your phone at lunch or during breaks, if possible."
"Look for patterns in writing and use these to look for errors/predict errors. Predict intended meanings and sentence structures and begin editing the sentence; you will have to backtrack occasionally, but you'll be right far more often than wrong, and the gain is a lot of time saved. However, this takes a lot of confidence; you have to trust your abilities and your initial interpretation (which is sometimes based only on a word or two)."
Paid Medical Dictionary – http://www.inductel.com/med.html
Free Medical Dictionary – http://jgmalcolm.com/medical-dictionary
The Chronicle of Higher Education – http://chronicle.com/
The Atlantic – http://www.theatlantic.com/
Science-based Medicine – http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/
The Onion – http://www.theonion.com/
Psychology Today – http://www.psychologytoday.com/
The Economist – http://www.economist.com/
The Public Domain Review – http://publicdomainreview.org/
Cracked – http://www.cracked.com/
Lifehacker – http://lifehacker.com/
The New Yorker – http://www.newyorker.com/
Alltop – http://alltop.com/
National Geographic – http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
Harper’s – http://harpers.org/
Arts & Letters Daily – http://www.aldaily.com/
The Oatmeal – http://theoatmeal.com/
Ted – http://www.ted.com/
iTunes U – http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/
Coursera – https://www.coursera.org/
Udacity – https://www.udacity.com/
The Saylor Foundation – http://www.saylor.org/
Alison.com – http://alison.com/
Open Culture – http://www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourses
Duolingo – https://www.duolingo.com/
Harvard University – https://online-learning.harvard.edu/catalog/free
So . . . Let's Hang Out – http://soletshangout.com
Eating Well – http://www.eatingwell.com
Foodgawker – http://www.foodgawker.com
Canadian Diabetes Association – https://diabetes.ca/en-CA/nutrition---fitness/recipes
Mayo Clinic – http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-recipes/RecipeIndex
Heart & Stroke – https://www.heartandstroke.ca/get-healthy/recipes
Leslie Beck, RD – http://www.lesliebeck.com/
Dual N-Back Game from Soak Your Head – http://www.soakyourhead.com/
Cool Math Games (these games are primarily for kids, but they provide a nice five-minute escape from mentally taxing work) – http://www.coolmath-games.com/
The Globe and Mail Puzzles and Crosswords – http://www.theglobeandmail.com/puzzles-andcrosswords/
The Guardian Crosswords – http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords
Shockwave Puzzle Games – http://www.shockwave.com/online/puzzle-games.jsp
The Editing Podcast – https://www.louiseharnbyproofreader.com/podcast.html
I Should Be Writing – http://murverse.com/subscribe-to-podcasts/isbw/
The Literary Salon – https://soundcloud.com/theliterarysalon
The Paris Review – https://player.fm/series/the-paris-review
The Subversive Copy Editor – https://www.subversivecopyeditor.com/blog/podcasts.html
The Writer Files – https://writerfiles.libsyn.com/
The Writership Podcast – https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/author-marketing-podcast/thewritership-podcast
The Allusionist – https://www.theallusionist.org/
History of English – https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/
A Way with Words – https://www.waywordradio.org/
Last Updated: 10/01/2022