Jacquelyn Jackie Landis Editing Tips

Editing Tips

Here are a couple of tips that you can use immediately to help make your work just a little better, a little more professional, a little more polished...

Don't rely on your computer's spell check function to catch your spelling errors. Spell checkers are notoriously unreliable. Plus, they don't catch words that might be spelled correctly but are used in the wrong context.

Can your spell-checker tell the difference between "their," "there," and "they're"? How about "threw" and "through," or "compliment" and "complement"? Read the following poem, courtesy of the BBC, and you'll see what I mean:

I have a spelling checker.
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot see.

Eye ran this poem threw it.
Your sure real glad two no.
Its very polished in its weigh,
My checker tolled me sew.

Just because you see it in print doesn't mean it's correct.
Picture this: You're reading the New York Times and you come across some questionable punctuation, grammar, or spelling that makes you pause. You don't think it's right, but this is the New York Times; it has to be correct, right? Wrong! We have an ingrained respect for notable publications, but you have to remember that the people who put them together are human, and they make mistakes.

Trust your instincts. If something looks wrong to you, check it out.