Difficult Edits: How Much Work Do I Put into Them?

One fact of editing is that some documents will take longer than others simply because the draft is really rough. In these situations, it can be helpful to remember that an editor can only do so much with a draft in complete disarray. 

Of course, you should always plan to do your best work and be as thorough as you can. But we do not expect you to spend an inordinate number of hours taking a document from nearly unintelligible to perfectly polished. The writing process is a back and forth, which means it might not be possible for every document you edit to be nearly ready for submission when you’ve finished with it. Sometimes the best we can do is clean up the errors in the text and provide guiding feedback for the Higher Order Concerns. 

Maybe you pick up a Clarity document that requires a heavy edit and takes up a whole lot of time. The best thing to do is stick it through to the end and rest assured that another document will come through the pipeline that will be a breeze. In the end, it will all average out. Most importantly, look for ways to work smarter, not harder. Check out these tips for editing efficiently and editing tough ESL documents to make the rough edits a little bit easier. 

Remember that the "Help! What do I do if..." and other FAQs section of the KB will guide you through any potential issues you might encounter.