Trying Text

First of all I apologize for the recent hiatus, but I am back in full force. I want to discuss the process of editing. I know every editor has a personalized version of this, but generally speaking there is an accepted order of operations. Just as Mathematics always adheres to the acronym BEDMAS, editing adheres to a set of skills/processes.

R1–readthrough #1: This is the quick readthrough that catches the most obvious mistakes, gives the editor an idea of authorial voice and style, as well as context. Essentially this is proof-reading and should only take the amount of time necessary to read the text.

R2–readthrough #2: This readthrough requires concentration, copious amounts of caffeine, a red pen, and post-it notes. This go around is specifically for finding errors, marking/correcting them, and jotting notes as to contextual/stylist/syntactical problems. Depending on the text it can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days. Depending on the agreement between the writer and the editor, the text is either sent back to the writer for corrections, or the editor makes the necessary corrections then sends the corrected text back for the writer to review.

As I mentioned earlier, every editor has a personal style; some editors do one intense readthrough, foregoing the proofreading stage alltogether, whereas others take a third look to make sure they didn’t miss anything. Regardless of whom you hire, ask about the process, and ask for some samples and references so that you know that you are hiring the right person.

Passive Voice vs. Active Voice

I often equate the battle between passive and active voice as a sweet balance in “The Force”; in creative writing, passive voice becomes the author’s sylistic choice, but in Academic or professional writing, active voice is the standard. Since this blog is mostly about what is acceptable for academia/professional discourse I’m going to say this as though it is the only acceptable thing to do: Do not use Passive Voice in your writing. Why? Well, it’s actually quite simple: it’s passive. The definition of passive is one that I’m certain we are all aware of, so I won’t waste your time, or mine, in defining it. Passive voice allows for something to happen to someone/thing, whereas Active voice has someone doing something.

Example: Passive Voice– “The paper airplane was thrown.” This little sentence leaves the reader wondering who or what threw the paper airplane. If you can follow up the statement with “…by zombies.”, thereby completely ruining your professional credibility, you have written in Passive voice.

I define Passive voice as, any sentence in which an object is acted upon by an unknown subject, thereby giving the illusion that the object is in fact the subject of the sentence. The object in the above sentence is the paper airplane, and the subject is unknown. The subject of a sentence is always the noun/pronoun which performs the action, and the object is always the noun/pronoun that is acted upon. It is easy to replace passive voice with active voice; all the writer has to do is insert a subject.

Example: Active Voice– “The little boy threw the paper airplane.”

It may not seem like a very pressing issue in a simple sentence as above, but when you are trying to convince your employer, client, or professor that you are an expert in regards to your chosen topic, using active voice becomes the difference between landing the client and missing out on a multi-million dollar opportunity. So, next time you are looking through your proposal, or your next paper just remember that if you can add “…by zombies.” to the end of any sentence, you have used passive voice. Replacing passive voice with active voice will make your argument come across as stronger, and it will help you come across as very eolquent.

Good luck, and remember: Active Voice is your friend!