Edit Your Finished Product
Learn how to edit documentation for clarity and readability by correcting sentence-level issues.
Introduction
To edit a document is not just to revise. It is also to look at each sentence in detail to make sure that it flows well and is correct. Although it is important to organize your document correctly, it will not be as effective as it could be without clear sentences.
Line editing is reading a document line by line, analyzing each sentence, and ensuring your language, flow, and meaning are as clear as possible. This can be daunting, but a careful read-through of your document will allow you to catch ambiguities, mistypes, and confusing statements.
Why line-edit?
Line editing is crucial to the understandability of your document. When you first write a document, ideas flow, meaning that correct syntax and punctuation usually go out the window. But that's okay! The first time you write something, it should not be pretty because you should focus on getting all the ideas out with a proper explanation. This will help your writing to flow better and be easier for you to understand. But, once the information is on the page, focus on your writing at the sentence level to ensure your audience will understand it too.
You may catch inconsistencies, holes, or confusing statements as you line-edit. Do not be discouraged if you come away from the line-editing process with more content to write. It is better that you catch any issues within your document before you send it out to clients, stakeholders, your team, etc., to avoid unnecessary confusion or questions.
Examples
Below are some examples of technical writing. Each example will have a rough draft and an edited version. All edits are further explained in the bullet points below.
End-user documentation
End-user documentation helps end-users understand how to ...