Editing and proofreading tips

• Editing and proofreading require you get some distance from the document. The closer you are to having written a document, the harder it if to proof and edit. Familiarity clouds judgment. Get away from the document. Set it aside for a few hours. Take a walk. Have lunch. Read it after your next meeting.
• Edit and proofread in your preferred medium. Some people like to work online; others need hard copy.
• Change the type size or font of the draft. This will give you a fresh eye. Return to the standard size and font after editing and proofreading.
• Find a quiet place to work. Distractions and interruptions lead to overlooked errors.
• Break down editing and proofreading into chunks of time. Don’t tackle them all at once.
• Schedule editing and proofreading tasks when you are most alert.

Use gender neutral language

• Avoid irrelevant gender descriptions such as “lady lawyer,” “woman pilot,” or “male nurse.”
• Watch your language. Waiters and waitresses are servers. Stewardesses are flight attendants. Mailmen, policemen, and firemen are, respectively, mail or postal carriers, police officers, and firefighters.
• Terms like “Girls,” and “Girl Fridays,” and "secretary" are as antiquated as typewriters. Use "assistant" or "admin."
• Avoid the he/she or him/her problem by using plural nouns such as employees, readers, clients that take plural pronouns -- their and them.
• Avoid sexist assumptions. A spouse is not always a wife -- and, in fact, there may be a partner, not a spouse.
• Avoid characterizing men and women in a way that is derogatory to one, such as “assertive men” and “aggressive women.”

Schedule big writing projects

Faced with a big writing project such as a manual or white paper? Determining how much time you need for each part of a writing project can help you plan your time to meet your deadline. Start with the deadline date and back up to find out when you need to start each part of the project. You might discover that you should have started working on the project two weeks -- or two months! -- ago.

For example, let's say your deadline is May 1 to write a white paper that will be approximately 20 pages. You estimate the following time frames:

* Planning - 1 day
* Organizing - 2 days
* Researching- 3 days
* Writing - 5 days
* Revising - 3 days
Total - 14 days

Few of us can devote 14 straight days to a writing project. In this example, 14 days of work means that we need to find 112 hours for this project, assuming an eight-hour day. We need to allocate time for each part of the process on our calendar, usually in one-hour increments.

Time set aside to work on this writing project should be treated as if it were an appointment or meeting that you cannot cancel. Otherwise, you will find yourself avoiding the work and struggline to meet your deadline, or worse, missing it.

E-mail is business correspondence, not IM

As we deal with customers via e-mail, we need to remember e-mail is a substitute for what we used to put on paper and snail mail. E-mail that goes to customers is business correspondence, not IM. Because it's business correspondence, it needs to meet the rule of business correspondence. Here's a formula for a good customer e-mail:

1. Use a salutation: Dear Title Last Name: or Dear First Name,.
2. Offer your help.
3. Use a meaningful subject line, re: or title.
4. Keep the e-mail short and simple.
5. Provide assurance that any promises will be fulfilled.
6. Leave the customer with a positive feeling.
7. Use a signature line that shows your name, department and phone number.
8. Proofread.
9. Use correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

An important comma rule

Comma rules are important; incorrect comma use is not only wrong, it can change the meaning of a sentence. Here is one of the most important comma rules that many writers don't understand.

• Use a comma to set off nonessential information and clauses. Generally, if you can take out the information set off by the commas and the sentence still makes sense, the information is nonessential and the commas are correct. If the sentence no longer makes sense when the information is removed, the commas should be deleted from the sentence.
• This sentence is wrong: "Those residents of San Francisco, who do not hold secure well-paying jobs, must resent the common portrayal of the city as a land of opportunity." The information inside the two commas is essential and should not be set off by commas.
• This version is correct: "Those residents of San Francisco who do not hold secure well-paying jobs must resent the common portrayal of the city as a land of opportunity." No commas are necessary since we are qualifying which residents we talking about.
  

What makes effective business correspondence?

Business correspondence is effective when it:

· Is targeted to a specific, appropriate reader.
· Uses language the reader understands.
· Has a clear purpose.
· Has the right tone.
· Gets to the point early and stays on point.
· Is well organized.
· Provides context for understanding.
· Includes all necessary information.
· Has a strong introduction and conclusion.
· Uses accurate grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
· Avoids jargon and idioms.

What does your reader want?

Putting yourself in the reader’s point of view gives you valuable information about what you need to say and how to say it. It helps you focus on your material on the end result -- being read.

1. Who is your reader?
· Team Members
· Management
· Public
· Students
· Customers
· Vendors
· Others:

2. Why does your reader need to know this information?

3. How much does your reader already know about the topic?
 Knows nothing  Knows something  Is an expert

4. How interested is the reader in the topic?
 Not interested  Somewhat interested  Very interested

5. How well does your reader understand topic jargon?
 Not at all  Somewhat  Is fluent

6. What are the reader’s priorities?

7. What is the reader’s level of education?

The reader wants something from having read your document. Always answer WIIFM -- what's in it for me? -- from the reader's perspective!