编辑是写作过程中的一个阶段，在这个阶段中，作者或编辑通过纠正错误、使单词和句子更清晰、更准确、尽可能有效来努力改进草稿。编辑过程包括添加、删除和重新排列单词，以减少混乱并简化整体结构。

编辑的重要性

无论你是在努力完成一项任务，还是希望发表一些东西，加强写作和纠正错误实际上都是一项非常有创造性的活动。经过深思熟虑的修改一部作品，可以澄清思想，重新想象图像，有时甚至可以彻底反思你处理主题的方式。

两种类型的编辑

"There are two types of editing: the ongoing edit and the draft edit. Most of us edit as we write and write as we edit, and it's impossible to slice cleanly between the two. You're writing, you change a word in a sentence, write three sentences more, then back up a clause to change that semicolon to a dash; or you edit a sentence and a new idea suddenly spins out from a word change, so you write a new paragraph where until that moment nothing else was needed. That is the ongoing edit... "For the draft edit, you stop writing, gather a number of pages together, read them, make notes on what works and doesn't, then rewrite. It is only in the draft edit that you gain a sense of the whole and view your work as a detached professional. It is the draft edit that makes us uneasy, and that arguably matters most."—From "The Artful Edit: The Practice of Editing Yourself" by Susan Bell

编辑检查点

"The final step for the writer is to go back and clean up the rough edges... Here are some checkpoints: Facts: Make sure that what you've written is what happened; Spelling: Check and recheck names, titles, words with unusual spellings, your most frequently misspelled words, and everything else. Use a spell check but keep training your eye; Numbers: Recheck the digits, especially phone numbers. Check other numbers, make sure all math is correct, give thought to whether numbers (crowd estimates, salaries, etc.) seem logical; Grammar: Subjects and verbs must agree, pronouns need correct antecedents, modifiers must not dangle (make your English teacher proud); Style: When it comes to repairing your story, leave the copy desk feeling like the washing machine repair guy who has nothing to do."—From "The Effective Editor" by F. Davis

课堂编辑

"A large portion of everyday editing instruction can take place in the first few minutes of class... Starting every class period with invitations to notice, combine, imitate, or celebrate is an easy way to make sure editing and writing are done every day. I want to communicate with my instruction that editing is shaping and creating writing as much as it is something that refines and polishes it... I want to step away from all the energy spent on separating editing from the writing process, shoved off at the end of it all or forgotten about altogether."—From "Everyday Editing" by Jeff Anderson

修修补补：写作的精髓

"Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it's where the game is won or lost... Most writers don't initially say what they want to say, or say it as well as they could. The newly hatched sentence almost always has something wrong with it. It's not clear. It's not logical. It's verbose. It's klunky. It's pretentious. It's boring. It's full of clutter. It's full of cliches. It lacks rhythm. It can be read in several different ways. It doesn't lead out of the previous sentence. It doesn't... The point is that clear writing is the result of a lot of tinkering."—From "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser

编辑轻松的一面

"I hate cross-outs. If I'm writing and I accidentally begin a word with the wrong letter, I actually use a word that does begin with that letter so I don't have to cross out. Hence the famous closing, 'Dye-dye for now.' A lot of my letters make no sense, but they are often very neat."—From "There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say" by Paula Poundstone

来源

• 贝尔，苏珊。“巧妙的编辑：关于编辑自己的实践”，W.W.诺顿，2007年
• 有效的编辑〉，波因特，2000年
• 安德森，杰夫。《日常编辑》，Stenhouse，2007年
• 辛瑟，威廉。“写得好”哈珀，2006年
• 庞德斯通，宝拉。“这本书中没有我想说的话。”三河出版社，2006年