Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 13
Editing
(1)
The reader should be able to find out what the story is about.
(2)
Some inkling of the general idea should be apparent in the
first five hundred words.
(3)
If the writer has decided to change
the name of the protagonist from Ketcham to McTavish, Ketcham
should not keep bobbing up in the last five pages.
James Thurber's standing rules for writing of humour
What's So Funny?
If a conscientious reader finds a passage unclear, it has to be
rewritten.
Karl Popper
Unended Quest
If you give me an eight-page article and I tell you to cut it to four
pages, you'll howl and say it can't be done. Then you'll go home
and do it, and it will be much better.
William Zinsser
On Writing Well, Sixth Edition
The writing of a paper begins with a rough draft, perhaps based on records of
experiments or sketches of a couple of theorems. It will probably include mater-
ial produced during the project, such as notes taken in meetings, reviews of litera-
ture, emails discussing the research question, and text from sources such as progress
reports. The next phase usually consists of filling out the draft to form a contiguous
whole: explaining concepts, adding background material, arranging the structure to
give a logical flow of ideas. Finally, the paper is polished by correcting mistakes,
improving written expression, and taking care of layout. Although it does not change
the quality of the research, it is this last phase—the styling of the paper—that has the
most impact on a reader. It should not be neglected, however strong the ideas being
communicated.
Few writers are good at judging their own writing. Discovery of shortcomings in
your text takes time and effort: careful reading, a willingness to admit to mistakes,
the regret of discarding text that was hard to create, and the labour of writing it afresh.
We know what we meant to say, but what we actually said may only be obvious to
others. The difference between a weak writer and a strong writer is, often, not the
ability to write fluently, but the effort taken to diligently edit and revise.
