BACKGROUND
A piece of writing can
tell you anything. But what happens if we move the sentence structure around or
add punctuation? The entire piece can develop a completely new meaning with the
slightest change. To all you new writers and editors out there, this is for
you.
ABSTRACT
. In the world of
writing, editing isn’t limited to one way. It can depend on what the message is
that a person is trying to get across to the audience. This is why an editor
needs to be especially careful when adding to or changing a piece of work. One
wrong step and the entire piece can be distraught. The type of genre a person
is writing in can also affect the way an editor looks at a piece. Now I’m sure
by now you are thinking that everything I’ve told you is common sense, but the
reiteration is to express the importance and impact that editing can have on
your directed audience. And by now I’m sure by now you’re wondering what the
point is. The point is that editing is an important aspect of any piece of
writing. If something is edited incorrectly, it could distract the audience
from the understanding they should be arriving at.
INTRODUCTION
So when should we use
editing? Is it something that occurs when we want to move something around just
because we feel like it, or is there a real purpose? How do we use editing to the fullest potential and how does it affect the authors as well as the readers?
WHAT
IS EDITING?
Editing is also a means of taking
out unnecessary information and taking out information that may cause a piece
to be seen as not credible. A strong example of this at work is the website
Wikipedia. The entire purpose of this
website is to allow editing from the entire public. Each topic may have a
little or a lot of information, but the question is how do we know what people
are editing can be seen as credible. In
Hood’s Editing out Obscenity, they
make a point to mention that when editing in your own information, you need to
make sure that you have a credible source to back it up. Because Wikipedia is
so easily accessed, it is important to have these websites be as accurate as
possible because many people are seeing the information in this website because
when you type into Google, Wikipedia is usually the first source to pop up. So
it’s the job of editors like you to improve the websites and the sources.
Editing can be done in
a positive or negative way. Editing can cause a misrepresentation of an
original idea or intention, but it can also improve the accuracy and
credibility of a piece of work. Another important point I think we should play
close attention to is that editing isn’t merely limited to a piece of writing.
It can expand to a theory, a piece of art, or even an image or video.
FORMS
OF EDITING
Now think back to all of the
elections. The first thing that comes to my mind is all of the political
campaigns that are mainstreaming television as a presidential election
approaches. Often, what you will see are many misguided commercials that are
highlighting a particular candidate in a certain light and that candidate will
shed a negative light on the opposing candidate by possibly editing out certain
things he have said and twisting it into a certain light. Also, with the
abilities that technology gives us, we can make so many changes and alterations
to art, videos and images. Programs like photo shop can allow the editing of
anything. For instance, if I wanted to change the face on the Mona Lisa or put a human head on a dog’s
body, I can instantly edit it with a few clicks. Now it isn’t strictly limited
to only art. A recent edit that has become popular on the internet would be the
remake of the Taylor Swift trouble music
video. Some editing genius thought to put a goat screaming into the music video
and is causing laughs around the country. So as you can see, editing is easy to
do and very accessible.
BECOMING
AN EDITOR/ WHEN DO WE EDIT?
Editing is one of the
most important aspects of writing. But the hard part knows when the right and
wrong to be editing something is. It’s the concept of picking your battles.
This relates to political correctness as well. Political correctness (PC) is “a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior
seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational,
gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs
or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts, and, as purported by the
term, doing so to an excessive extent.” So it is extremely important
that when editing in any aspect, to be sure not to create any political bias
and cause a piece to be distraught.
Every genre can be looked at differently, but it all comes down to one
simple word; Responsibility. As an editor, you become responsible of the work
you are editing. Your name may not appear on the work, but if the editing is
done poorly it reflects poorly not just on you, but on the original author.
This is why it is imperative to choose your battles wisely, and not make
changes without careful consideration before going red pen crazy. “When you take
on a book, you have to answer to yourself why you’re doing it and be willing to
live with the consequences.” (Wolf, 230)
HOW DO WE
EDIT?
When editing,
often what can happen is that if it is a piece of your own you will make
changes you maybe didn’t see at first, but when it’s somebody else’s work, what
you look for is for what makes sense. It is “Language that affects the writer’s
voice and thus, the reader’s interpretation: tone, the writer’s stance, or
attitude toward the topic; diction, the choice of words, and point of view, the
perspective from which the writer views the topic.” (Kolln, 107) If we take this
into consideration, this is how proper editing can be obtained.
What
is the most important to make things credible? There are rules to follow for
different genres. If something is persuasive, make sure the editing keeps the
piece on the original view. As an editor you cannot be bias. You need to look
for grammatical errors and wordy sentences, not add in your opinion. Staying
objective is important for any editor. This all goes back to political
correctness. For a quick example, Wikipedia follows its own rules in the editing
sphere. At any given time, because of Wikipedia’s open editing policies,
thousands of peoples are reading and editing a single topic. Because of this,
it is important that all “editors” remain unbiased. Because of this open
editing, and editors work will never be done on this website. “Because they are
publically accessible, Wikipedia entries require reading that takes the
process, their means of production, into consideration. Reading that does not
misreads a finished version for a text still in progress. A finished version of
a Wikipedia entry exists only in
theory, however; since entries are rarely locked or tagged “read only” a reader
can take on the role of an editor at any time, thereby updating, fussing with,
or otherwise adulterating and entry that have remained stable for a while.” (Hood,
Explanation in Process)
CONCLUSION
As
an editor, you have many responsibilities. You become responsible for the
comprehension and readability of a piece and you make it ready for publication.
Without you, pieces would be a jumble of grammatical errors and lengthy
sentences. So as an editor, take your role serious because it affects every person
who reads something. If you follow all of these steps, you can’t go wrong in
the editing field.
APPENDICES
No comments:
Post a Comment