Introduction

Editing skills are essential. You need them to communicate your thoughts effectively and convincingly. You need them to excel in writing essays, emails, and presentations while you’re in school. And you’ll need them so that your résumé isn’t ignored and so that your email requesting an interview isn’t deleted. Beyond that, you’ll need editing skills in any job. Indeed, the ability to communicate is consistently listed as one of the top things employers desire in potential employees.

Guide to Editing Essentials is filled with helpful explanations to help you learn the skills that will make your writing stand out.

Let’s start with the definition of a sentence. Having editing skills means that you know how to make a sentence following the structure and punctuation of what is called standard edited English (which differs from everyday speech).

If someone asks you, “What are you doing today?” you might answer, “I am going to a coffee shop.” This response is considered a complete sentence: it has a noun part—a person or thing that is doing the action—that acts as a subject; in this case, it is the pronoun “I.” It also has a verb part that is the action—“am going to a coffee shop.”

Sentences can get more complicated than this, and there is much more terminology we can use to talk about them. You will find some of that terminology at the end of this document version in an appendix called “Parts of Speech.” We’ll explain these and other terms as we go along.

The Guide to Editing Essentials is designed partly to prepare students at University of Northwestern–St. Paul for the Editing Competency Exam, a mandated element of its 1000-level composition courses. But it is also designed to instruct students in the best means of written expression. Sections that are not tested by the Editing Competency Exam are still important for careful writers to observe. These sections are headed For the Careful Writer.

Our hope is that in your work, school, and other settings, you will be recognized for your written communication skills.