Archive for April 10th, 2008

Thursday, April 10th, 2008

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Editing Etiquette – Overlooked in the Writing Process

Author: PAN Communications

writing%20image.jpeg All professionals, including those in the PR field, occasionally lose grip of the basics in writing whether that be punctuation, long-winded phrases, or excessive "fluff". Today, PAN employees attended a Pub Club Writing Workshop with Michael Dowding, president of Wordscape Communications and an adjunct lecturer at Boston University. Covering everything from comma usage and appropriate abbreviations to document layouts and useful books, we enjoyed (yes, I said enjoyed) a three and a half hour refresher in communication writing. As an added bonus we were thoroughly engaged and even entertained by Dowding who combined his passion for writing and his sense of humor to keep us laughing throughout the explanation of "offensive" editing, and pronouns. While I think the entire workshop was fantastic, I found his reminder of Editing Etiquette to be particularly helpful since the following points are so often overlooked and could ease some tension during the editing/review process: - Track changes - Use proofreader's marks - Make defensible edits - Be specific - Add clarifying comments - Label drafts to avoid confusion - "Write like a saint. Read like a cynic." - Give feedback with respect For the writer: when reading edits to your own work, always assume the editor had good intentions (and disregard the desire to cry when your paper draft looks likes it's bleeding from the edit pen).
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