{"id":102,"date":"2012-12-17T17:16:48","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T17:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/?p=102"},"modified":"2021-05-30T03:51:30","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T03:51:30","slug":"editing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/2012\/12\/17\/editing\/","title":{"rendered":"Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"

You cannot edit yourself any more than you can tickle yourself, and for the same reasons, Diane Middlebrook<\/a> once told me. Better writers understand this.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Here are the 9 C’s I use as an editor of other writers’ work:<\/p>\n

1. Completeness<\/p>\n

2. Conciseness<\/p>\n

3. Clarity<\/p>\n

4. Convincingness<\/p>\n

5. Currency<\/p>\n

6. Correctness<\/p>\n

7. Consistency<\/p>\n

8. Congruency<\/p>\n

9. Courtesy<\/p>\n

Almost all writers need a second set of eyes to assess and improve the first four qualities in a document they compose, because they typically already believe<\/strong> they\u2019ve been concise, complete, clear, and convincing enough. To assess and improve the rest often requires that second set of eyes, too.<\/p>\n

I believe that *courtesy* comprises all the other qualities, as the basis of successful communication, of fostering and maintaining relationships.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Bob Crockett<\/a>, for suggesting numbers 7 and 8 (though I\u2019m embarrassed I hadn\u2019t already placed \u201cconsistency\u201d on the list).<\/p>\n

[Note: My list overlaps a lot with this one<\/a> but was put together independently. It’s not surprising its author and I reached similar conclusions, of course.]<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

Follow us on Twitter: @nocontestca<\/a>
\nFollow me on Twitter: @thebasil<\/a><\/p>\n

(photo by Bob Basil)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You cannot edit yourself any more than you can tickle yourself, and for the same reasons, Diane Middlebrook once told me. Better writers understand this. *** Here are the 9 C’s I use as an editor of other writers’ work: 1. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-roberts-posts","tag-editing-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2101,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/2101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nocontest.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}