Why and How to edit the text: a guide with examples

Communicating with members of the writers' courses, I noticed that some faced with the challenge: how to clean water, to give a clear structure and form of the material. The level of literacy authors also suffering.

I will share with you the methods and ideas of editing, which I use when I write lyrics. All supported by examples.

I must say that the instruction does not fit, if you write in the genre Free writing or conducts a personal diary. It is for the texts to be read by other people. Go.

Why do I edit

Igor Nikolaev, identifies five reasons:

• Euphony: change the order of words, work on rhythm and dynamics, replacement of expressions characteristic of colloquial style, the removal of dies and kantselyarizmov.
• Brevity: Better briefly and succinctly than the length and smudge.
• It is true: in the text should be only proven facts. Or specify the data source.
• Literacy check punctuation, spelling, syntax, spelling correction and everything else that violates the rules of the Russian language.
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• The pain of that love has died. Actually, no, the fifth reason - pause: it is necessary to divide the stages of writing and editing, to give yourself a break from the material, and the material - from you.

Of the reasons for editing logical flow and methodology. Let us examine them in detail and go from the last point to the first, from the simple to the complex.

What do I need a good text

1. Pause

Hemingway heard the phrase: "Write drunk - right sober?" The first thing you need to know: Hemingway never it did not say. He loved the seals and drink, but never wrote a drunk, his granddaughter confirms this. Quote belongs to the hero of the novel "Ruben, Ruben" by American author Peter De Vries. However, the phrase is so popular that she devoted dozens of articles in Russian and foreign Internet. No matter who is its author, the main thing - meaning.

Creative and critical processes should be separated. When writing, you stay in the flow, while thoughts and ideas swirling in my head, do not limit yourself. The very process of writing, if you really like it, and there is intoxication.

When finished - remove text from him. Arrange the "day of silence", do not touch it, step back. Why do it? While writing in your bright emotions play, every sentence is full of intonation, everything seems important and necessary. In other words, you are attached to the text. The main break point - to break the connection. To objectively approach the editing, you need to forget that the text you write, edit, you need an open mind: the way you would have ruled the others' texts. Be sober.

Odorgivayte yourself every time notice that slowed down, back to some paragraph and there is something to pick, me, pick a better option. Go to the end of the text and continue.

If you have deadlines and terms, then immediately overfill time to pause in working hours, do not neglect them. Otherwise a high risk to pass low-quality material. First, write - write at full speed - and then be sure to pause. The duration is chosen according to internal sensations: some only a couple of hours, someone needs a week. Without a break is impossible.

Well, now you can break off and pour a cup of tea.

2. Literacy

Give the publication of the text with errors - not to respect the reader. And the authority in the eyes of literate audience will lose. The text must be written clean and neat before each comma and letters.

Errors are divided on:

• typography - typos and other mistakes on the keyboard, improper alignment of dashes, spaces, quotation marks, and so on; solved by re-reading and knowledge of these same rules;
• spelling - spelling; You can check online or in the Word;
• punctuation - the alignment of punctuation marks, sore Internet writers and bloggers; You can also be checked online or in the Word;
• tautology - undue repetition of single-root words; carefully re-read and replace synonyms;
• syntax - link words in a sentence; of the errors can be found on-line services and the Word, but the man always will check better.

Read the text with errors - the pain. If you can admit that a high level of literacy - it's not about you, then despair and throw should not be written. Literacy - more technical aspect of writing than creative. Your audience is interesting in the first place and use the theme of the text. Yet you should not rely too much on services, to man them away.

Where can I check the text:

• Built-in checks in MS Word: rough, but it works;
• languagetool.org;
• textis.ru;
• advego.com;
• online.orfo.ru;
• «Online correction».

These services work with the text is very superficial: typos and spelling can evaluate, but checks within the meaning of the words above their capabilities. In the screenshot below the text that I wrote specifically with errors and checked on all sites. Here are 12 mistakes of all kinds, but all that gives the service, - an error in the word "croissant" and the beginning of the sentence with a lowercase letter. Do you still trust the machine?

Typography - an art dedicated to elegant and logical design. If you want the text to look solid, by the book, not as if you're not looking distribute the notes on the way to work, you learn the rules, it is not difficult. Beautiful materials (yes, it's very Artemy Lebedev) and a resource on the topic:

• «Screen typography»;
• «Dash, hyphen and minus, or a feature of Russian typography»;
• typographer Muravyova - on the main site has a demo mode, which can convert your text into typographically correct (and get the HTML-code to insert text on the website).

Better is the case with tautologies. service "A fresh look"Will not be repeated. Throws in his text, play settings and start processing. I prefer the larger context of the length of the words to be repeated less frequently. Here's a screenshot of an example:

Life hacking. If you are writing a text editor, such as Word, then use the built-in search (a combination of Ctrl + F on Windows or Command + F in macOS). For example, my trouble was the pronoun "it" and its derivatives. In order not to clutter up the text of tautologies, do a search on the "floor" throughout the document, words with these letters are lit, and I altered the phrase to remove duplicates. Or simply discarded and replaced by a dash.

syntax error to find with the help of complicated services. Something similar exists in Word: incorrect connections word version of editor in 2016 emphasizes the blue, so does a comma and a space. Errors in spelling and unfamiliar words - red. But always have to be careful: Word not all understand and adequately assess. For more information about the syntax (this is too broad a topic for an article), read in Ilyahova and Sarychev in "Write, reduces" - highly recommend.

The conclusion is simple - increase the level of literacy. This will help you service Ilya Birman with the basic rules of the Russian language. The site easy search - check all the moments in which the doubt.

3. true

All statements and facts in the text, which can be verified by checking need! If you are not sure or can not check, you do not have the right to publish the material.

Forget the phrase "the majority of Russians / men / cannibal", "many people think / see / know" and stuff like that. You can not confirm the figures - to admit that you think so, it is with the words of friends and acquaintances, or the results of voting among your subscribers in social networks.

Let's links to authoritative sources. Do not lie to the reader.

As an editor you carry a certain responsibility. If the basis of data from the ASSUME any publications and they have no links to sources that do not use this information, or check for yourself.

In the beginning I wrote about Hemingway, and that he did not belong to the phrase "write drunk, edit sober." I specifically checked the information, searched the Russian- and English-speaking Internet, because he wanted to check whether this is true or just a cliché shove, when it is convenient. As a result foundWho said «Write Drunk, Edit Sober»?That the author quotes a very different«Write drunk; edit sober »-. Ernest Hemingway, And did not hide behind the authority and cultural significance of Hemingway, and said plainly that he never such did not speak.

And so you need to do with all the facts. The well-known ≠ true. Remember the formula of Dr. House: "Everybody lies"? Here let others lie, and you - do not. The editor must be honest: in front of him, the author and the readers.

4. short

Cut everything that is possible. Work on different levels: sentences, paragraphs, and entire text.

In a sentence

Remove personal pronouns, if without them it is clear about whom we are. First of all, get rid of the "I", not yakayte. In Russian verbs are conjugated, ie the change in number and person. Therefore, the reader will understand always, about whom we are. Instead of "I saw (a)" - just "saw (a)" of the verb, and so it is clear who is the protagonist. Occasionally pronoun is better to leave if an offer sounds bad without it.

Look for the pronoun "it" and its derivatives ( "these", "who", "what", and so on) and repeat rephrase the sentence. Constant repetition of these pronouns - a sign of speaking. We note that in the previous sentence after the dash could remove the "it"? Had.

If it turns out to throw part of the sentence without loss of meaning - throw away.

Tire - a beautiful typographic mark, one of whose functions - to replace the missing words. Example: "She has worked at the school in the first shift, and I - in the second." Need not be repeated, "I worked at the school in the second shift ': Leave the keywords else replace it with a dash.

Remember the formula: one sentence - one unit of information. Do not overload the proposals fraction of for clarity. Example: "We were going to go to my grandmother in the village and on the road Victor cut his hand." Here, in the same sentence two thoughts: "the family goes to the country" and "Victor cut myself." Separate these proposals. "We were going to go to my grandmother in the village. On the road Victor cut his hand. "

In paragraph

One paragraph - one idea, a theme, a conclusion. Divide the text into paragraphs to make it easier to read and navigate. In the paragraph you open a thought or situation that began in the first sentence. If we take the example of the village and Vitya, the logical number is: come to the village → → injured Victor went to the hospital → trip fell through. Paint better - that's ready paragraph. At the beginning of the topic declare, in the middle of it reveals at the end - a conclusion.

The whole text

Paragraph - a microcosm of the text, with its beginning, middle and end. The same can be said about the text in general. If you had a plan, check if you have not moved there from him. Look for recurring thoughts. Ruthlessly remove these pieces, even if they are large. It makes no sense to convince the reader repeats, so just write to convey the importance of thought.

I was afraid to remove portions of the text, because he considered them something important, something that will focus the reader on the question of deeper and wider. This is mistake. Everyone will see only the final result, no one will tell you, "Ai-yai-yai, what a great place cut, why are you so." It you choose to show the reader. Show the best.

In the text there is a subject - what you want to say. It is not necessary digression. Do not deviate to the side, on the side of thinking, let everything be slim and logical. Drop unnecessary, make the text easier, save time and forces the reader. Dry indefinitely does not make sense: leave the colors and emotions, but the water must be removed.

5. Euphony

Complex left for last. Emotional perception of the text is subjective, but a number of rules, there and here.

Philologists divide it on the oral and written. These are different "genres" and writing is more orderliness, logic and clarity. Unlike oral written language is never unprepared. When you write, you always know what write.

When the next time you talk to someone on the phone, pay attention not only to what they talk, but also to how he says. Think about whether this stream of words to write and get a beautiful and harmonious presentation of ideas? Most likely no.

The word order in a sentence is also important. He sets the rhythm. The speech can break the usual order, the benefit of Russian language allows you to change the words in some places, and it is also a feature of the speech. Another caller can always understand if the permutation of words does not give different meanings to what you say.

What changed:

1. Gone from ambiguity: not keratin is first mentioned in the literature (maybe about him singing songs that have not survived), and first mentioned in written form keratin found in scientific work.
2. We divided the two constructions with the preposition "in", making it easier to read.

The dynamics of the text - the rate of supply of material, emotional, visual, the degree of involvement of the reader. Good text captures bad - repellent.

Think of any legal contract: endless paragraphs and subparagraphs, from which you can go crazy. Offers long and complex, difficult to read - you want to sign quickly and throw a sheaf of papers in the bottom drawer. In this case, the contract is an important: because you can get money, motivation, more than enough to penetrate. And yet from this one reading fatigue. The case - in the choice of words.

To make the text dynamic, enter the character you can empathize, whose problems are clear. Draw the living world, adds details and images that will act on the reader's emotions. In the paragraph above, I did it when he talked about the contract and the bottom drawer of the desk. All have lived a similar experience and can imagine yourself in the place of text character.

Move away from abstraction and component of passive verb forms, rarely use verbal participle and participial - add direct action.

Stamps kantselyarizmy - turns of speech that are inherent in everyday speech, statements, legal paper and other ponderous writings. Crown techniques kantselyarizma - verbal nouns instead of verbs and nouns in the ranks of the oblique cases. Instead, "we do" - a faceless "manufacture", rather than "during" - "in the production process," and so on. Sounds official, but lifeless and cumbersome.

Get rid of kantselyarita and stamps - a zombie in Russian literature. Make it lively and beautiful.

The writer's task - to simplify the text, to make it easier denounced the essence, and the reader will spend less energy. So sometimes we have to edit longer than write - this is normal. Such is the price of good material.

Output

The Internet has given us the freedom of a writer. Everyone can publish his text, and the choice is huge sites. Intense competition, the need for content and low professionalism of editors led to the fact that the text quality requirements have decreased. I saw the stupid mistakes in books and online magazines, saw frankly weak in terms of editing and language article on famous sites like Psychologies, Esquire or Glamour. Even large authoritative publications dropping the bar.

Therefore, the only hope of the authors. I will not argue: the content determines often the content is more important than form, but editing is not only corrects typos and puts commas - it helps convey meaning and highlight the essence. Good text - like a diamond: diamond becomes only after cutting. That's the purpose of editing.

Bonus: how to develop editing skills

Read Russian classics - a storehouse of language, word order and harmonious style. Avoid tabloid literature - the level of editing it is often in doubt. At the very least, reduce the proportion of such reading in favor of the classics. Later, reading more consciously, you will see all the schools, and they do not affect your writer's taste.

Read verses: Brodsky, Mayakovsky, Christmas, of course, Pushkin, Lermontov, and other classics. Even if you do not like poetry, like reading powerfully develops a sense of the writer's rhythm. Guarantee.

Special literature, which will help in authorship and Editing: "Write, reduces" Maxim Ilyahova and Lyudmila Sarychev, "The word of the living and the dead," Nora Gal. Believe me, even these two books will help you greatly. Services with the rules of the Russian language is also a good help, therules.ru gramota.ru and should become your faithful companions.

Competent writer is not one who does not make mistakes, but the one who can check the text and correct it. So check all the moments in which the doubt. Gradually, they will be less.