Pneumonochrome

10. Perhaps the most obvious reason an editor is essnetial to the writing process is spelling. Correct spelling can make or brake your message. Few things are more distracting to large portions of the literate populous than abundant spelling errors.

9. An editor can help ensure that your sentences are consistent. It can be very confusing when your own on-the-go editing produces a sentence that seems to have been stapled together like the Frankenstein monster can cause your readers to reread portions of your sentences in complete befuddlemetn.

8. Editors help to make sure you stay focused in your writing. Focus is important, especially in topical writing. Topical writing is any writing that is done to discuss one specific topic and communicate information about it to many people. Much of the writing on teh internet could be considered attempts at topical writing. Some of my favorite blogs are topical blogs, whether they are about the daily experiences of people working under appreciated jobs or the latest political trends, each post on the blog generally should have a specific topic. I read one the other day about Hillary Clinton’s health care plan that was a prime example of good focus in writing. The post wasn’t long, really, but was packed with good information about and analysis of Senator Clinton’s proposed changes to the health care system in the United States. It was clear from the author’s writing that he didn’t care for Senator Clinton at all, but his treatment of her health care plan was very even. He resisted the urge to discuss other aspects of her platform in that post, which would have diminished the focus of the article and obfuscated the points he intended to make, and it made all the difference in the world to the readability of hte post.

7. Editors can help you to avoid one of the unpardonable sins of writing: excessive use of cliché. Everyone under the sun, these days, seems to plug cliché into their writing like it’s going out of style.

5. Editors, while good at helping you correct errors in your writing, can also identify areas where your writing is incomplete, helping you to be a more thorough and reputable writer.

4. Editros can also help to make sure you write using a grammar that is appropriate for your audience and purpose. Just as a technical manual should avoid words like “duh” and “fussbudget”, writing for young children should not be comprised of words like “esoteric”, “skullduggery”, or “actionable”.

3. What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing, he knew nobody had said it before. For the rest of us, editors help to ensure we aren’t plagiarizing anyone else.

2. Editors can help spot punctuation errors that can be every bit as disracting as spelling errors can; and can help you find better sentence constructions in general.

1. Editors provide a much-needed second point-of-view. It will never make as much sense to anyone else as it does to you, and editors can help make sure you haven’t left out necessary antecedents.