• Home
    • About Us
  • Services
  • Portfolio
    • Ghostwriting
    • Editing
    • Critiques
    • Formatting
    • My Byline
    • Testimonials
  • Free Reads
  • Reviews
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Contact
HEN HOUSE PUBLISHING
  • Home
    • About Us
  • Services
  • Portfolio
    • Ghostwriting
    • Editing
    • Critiques
    • Formatting
    • My Byline
    • Testimonials
  • Free Reads
  • Reviews
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Contact

Hens Lay Eggs

food for thought

Good writing is good writing, regardless of subject

2/13/2018

 
Many of the freelance editing gigs advertised express requirements that indicate the hiring companies don't really understand what editing is. Or maybe I just take a narrow view of editing.

Editing concerns the improvement of content.

Editing differs from writing. Writers generate content. They conduct the research and write to convey the information and meaning. The editor makes sure that the content flows well, makes sense, and otherwise engages and informs the reader without undue confusion. Editing, therefore, employs a separate set of skills than writing. Editors are not fact checkers. Their knowledge is at once specialized and general: they understand the nuances of language and how best to exploit them. They need not possess the technical background relating to the topic under discussion.

That last part--the technical background--becomes more and more relevant to and required by hiring organizations. After all, someone could write absolute hogwash regarding crypto-currencies and I would know no differently. I could make sure that the hogwash employed a preponderance of active voice, minimized grammatical and syntactical errors, and generally made for interesting copy; however, I could not verify with any authority whatsoever that the information conveyed was factual and correct.

That said, too much of writing for business suffers from poor execution. Pick up a business report, any report, and count the number of passive verbs to active verbs. A preponderance of passive verbs leads to a deadly dull composition. A single, short declarative sentence surrounded by active voice makes a powerful statement. Declarative, state-of-being sentences strung together in succession have just the opposite effect.

Next, count the adverbs. Used sparingly, adverbs add illustrative detail. Overused, they make the narrative drag because they tell how something is done; they don't show it.

After that, look at the length of the paragraphs. Modern attention spans don't appreciate large blocks of text. People find them daunting and off-putting. Keep paragraphs short. That also ties into the longstanding advice regarding brevity. Mark Twain, Cicero, Alexander Pope, and others offered many pithy comments on the desirability of concise writing, all of which make very good sense. I particularly like this quotation from Hans Hoffman: “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”

Part of an editor's job is to cut out the unnecessary words and to determine the appropriate level of language for the intended audience. More than that, the editor looks to see whether each passage advances the narrative. Anything that does not has no place within the composition. Liken unnecessary words or extra scenes to the arbitrary addition of notes within music. Those notes don't enhance the tune, they detract from it.

Let your content sing. Hire an editor.

#HenHousePublishing
#HollyBargoBooks

Comments are closed.

    Share!

    Picture

    Author

    Hard boiled, scrambled, over easy, and sunny side up: eggs are the musings of Holly Bargo, the pseudonym for the author.

    Follow
    Karen (Holly)

    Blog Swaps
    View Guest Author Posts
    Looking for a place to swap blogs? Holly Bargo at Hen House Publishing is happy to reciprocate Blog Swaps in 2019.
    For more information: 
    Email Us

    Get Your Copy of
    Hen House Publishing Blog via Email:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    Categories

    All
    Books By Holly Bargo
    Egg Reviews
    Events
    Guest Author
    Interviews
    Mfrw
    Mfrwauthor
    #MFRWHooks
    Reviews
    #SpringfieldOHBookFair
    Status
    #WinterBookFair

    Share

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

HOME | ABOUT US | SERVICES | PORTFOLIO | TESTIMONIALS | BOOK CATALOG | FREE READS | BLOG | EVENTS | CONTACT
Copyright © 2015 - 2023
  • Home
    • About Us
  • Services
  • Portfolio
    • Ghostwriting
    • Editing
    • Critiques
    • Formatting
    • My Byline
    • Testimonials
  • Free Reads
  • Reviews
  • Events
  • Blog
  • Contact