How Not to Get Lost: Part II

December 12, 2024

We now move on to the task of researching while editing. 

For me, the purpose of any kind of edit is to make the author’s argument clearer and more consistent. There is an argument in everything. Yes, even fiction. In academic writing the author is making claims regarding facts or interpretations of facts. In marketing writing the author is making claims about a product. In fiction, an author is making many claims- some about human nature, some about the state of the world, or some about emotional truth. The goal of a good edit is to make those arguments shine through. 

The type of  editing I do is not fact checking, though sometimes I do point out facts that seem wrong or irrelevant.  Because essentially an editor is not there to be in the thick of the fight with the writer. Unfortunately writers have to fight their own fight while writing. An editor is the coach that teaches the writer how to land their punch. 

So, in a way, the content of any given written piece doesn’t really matter. I don’t need to know every detail about the Umayyads in Baghdad to be able to edit a paper on the subject. What I need is to understand what the author is trying to say about Umayyads and the ways in which I can help them express that clearly. 

My research tools when it comes to editing are my hefty Chicago Manual of Style (alma mater, pride!), which I found abandoned on a park bench, (why anyone would discard a Chicago Manual of Style is beyond me. But their loss is my gain), a knowledge of writing conventions in various fields, and a keen eye for separating the seed of an argument from the chaff. 

And that is, my friend, the ways in which I do not get lost in research.