The Associated Press Stylebook taught me how to make my writing more concise. It holds specifics on many situations where you can unintentionally write things redundantly. Instead of writing, "The meeting will be held on Monday 8 a.m. in the morning," Stylebook teaches to cut out the crap and write, "The meeting will be held Monday morning." There are other acceptable ways to write it, "The meeting will be held 8 a.m. on Monday." There is no reason to add "in the morning" if you are specifying it's at 8 a.m.
This is something I was used to doing from years of writing papers where I may have needed a few more words, and ended up fluffing everything up to reach the word count. I now realize that great writing in concise, and doesn't require fluffy phrases to make it sound fancier, or more impressive.
My editing mistake for this week is from a teacher's PowerPoint slide. I will not name the teacher, obviously. It is a mistake that could have easily been caught with a quick re-read.
I believe the intention was to use the word stimulated, which is past-tense. Instead, the word stimulates is used, which does not agree with the subject. Quickly reading over the slide could cause you to miss the mistake, which is why editing is important. Having a second person look over your work is also very helpful because since it is something you have written, you know what you intended to say. Sometimes when you already know what you're supposed to be reading, you anticipate the words and miss important mistakes.
I don't trust myself sometimes even with looking over it again. I have to have someone else look at it or print it out so I can look over the hard copy with fresh eyes.
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