Week 4

One of the things I learned this week was the value of conciseness. I edit a great deal of the work that students turn in for the Signpost, and this week I saw excessive wordiness.

 I think we should strive to write tight. In the words of Thumper, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.” (that’s technically a double negative, can I count that for my editing mistake? Haha)

. But one thing I want to stress is if you only have a paragraph of stuff to say, only write a paragraph. Don’t try to lengthen out your writing.

 Don’t fill your writing with meaningless sentences just to reach a word count. I want to revise Thumper’s advice: “If you can’t say something nice, find something.” 

As I finished typing that I just looked down at my word count. I’m such a hypocrite.

Another thing I have improved in myself is the active voice. And now I see it everywhere. I can really see how it makes your writing more powerful if you use a powerful verb.

My editing mistake was a misspelling of the word calm. She spelled it clam and it thoroughly amused me. This is a test for a training I conduct at work.

Another time someone took this test they wrote “Enfinsise” instead of “Emphasize.” Nearly gave me a heart attack.