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Editing
Read more about editing for coherence and correctness in Ch.9 and Ch. 10. For more about correctness, see Appendix, Part C.
Having revised your draft and made changes to its content and organization, it’s time for you to edit. Editing is the process of checking the draft to improve its grammar, punctuation, style, usage, diction (word choice), and mechanics (such as use of numbers and abbreviations). You will do most of the editing by yourself, but you might also ask others for assistance, especially writers and editors in your organization. One technology that enables people at different locations to work together is a wiki, a website that lets authorized readers edit a document (also referred to as a wiki) and archives all the previous versions of the document.
For a discussion of using wikis to create collaborative documents, see Ch. 4.
The resources devoted to editing will vary depending on the importance of the document. An annual report, which is perhaps the single most important document that people will read about your organization, will be edited rigorously because the company wants it to look perfect. A biweekly employee newsletter also will be edited, but not as rigorously as an annual report. What about the routine emails you write every day? Edit them, too. It’s rude not to.