E DITING TO I MPROVE Y OUR W RITING

A VOID EXPLETIVE PHRASES. It is, There is, There are,..

A VOID UNNECESSARY ARTICLES ( A, AN, THE ). She hated to wash [the] dishes.

C OLLAPSE UNNECESSARY PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES. She lived in the house on the corner. She lived in the corner house. The hero of the book failed. The book's hero failed.

A VOID DOUBLETS ( USELESS REPETITION ). neglected and discarded benches the honest truth red in color

E MPLOY ACTIVE, PRECISE VERBS ( AVOID CRUTCH VERBS all forms of to have, take, make, seem, give, get, show, use, state, be, do.

C OLLAPSE UNNECESSARY RELATIVE CLAUSES. The child who is abused performs poorly in school. The abused child performs poorly in school. He told us that he used to enjoy playing sports. He told us he used to enjoy playing sports.

U SE PLURAL NOUNS WHEN NUMBER IS INSIGNIFICANT. Singular) The abused child performs poorly in school. (Plural) Abused children perform poorly in school.

S TATE THE NEGATIVE POSITIVELY. He did not enjoy the novel. He disliked the novel. She cannot arrive late. She must arrive on time.

P REFER THE CONCRETE NOUN TO THE ABSTRACT, THE SPECIFIC TO THE GENERAL. The idea of completing a degree motivated her. Graduation motivated her.

W HERE POSSIBLE, SUBSTITUTE VERBALS AND VERBS FOR NOUNS. The loss of a friend hurts. Losing a friend hurts.

U TILIZE THE FINITE TENSES WHEN THE PROGRESSIVE IS NOT ESSENTIAL. He had been studying all night. He studied all night. We were trying to avoid problems. We tried to avoid problems.

A VOID VERBS THAT REQUIRE A PREPOSITION OR TWO TO COMPLETE THEIR MEANING. He headed up the committee. He headed the committee.

E MPLOY SIGNALS TO LEAD YOUR READERS. first, second, next, finally, in addition to, also..

M ORE T IPS … Prefer active voice to passive. Avoid jargon, federalese, triteness, trendy words, the off- beat, journalese. Write in the first, second, or third person as appropriate. Remember that most adjectives and adverbs are unnecessary.

M ORE T IPS … Prefer the breathable sentence, clause, and phrase to the unbreathable. Edit your writing for style, punctuation, grammar, spelling, flow, and coherence. Vary your sentence pattern. Fight clutter. Do not commit the deadliest sin: writing a boring essay.

M ORE T IPS … Consider your audience. When you write, think specifically of readers, as if one or two of them were sitting across from you or looking over your shoulder and wanted to know what you meant in this phrase, sentence, paragraph, article. Work hard on your writing. Hard writing means easy reading. Read other writing for the writing. Notice how good writers build their paragraphs and essays. When editing, always read your papers aloud. Listen for smooth flow of ideas, appropriate transitions, and comfortable sentence variety.