Anyone here at Bitmob who has had a story promoted to the front page knows the signs leading up to it. Your piece mysteriously has a different title. Links to your tags suddenly appear. Your sentences magically gain more clarity.
This is because every article that gets picked for the front page undergoes a quality-control process that in essence polishes your article. Staff members scrutinize stories to check for proper grammar, rewrite any awkward sentences for greater clarity, and clean up any formatting issues. It takes a lot of work, and the great editors here at Bitmob should be commended for the job they do every day.
Well, now it’s time to take a walk in their shoes with Editor’s Choice, this month’s Bitmob Writing Challenge. Participants will pair up with another community writer for the purpose of executing the roles of both writer and editor. Get ready to bust out those grammar guides!
The Prompt
Proofreading your own work before posting it is important, as it reveals grammar mistakes and sentences that need to be rewritten. However, having someone else look over your work will often bring to light even more trouble spots that you overlooked. This prompt will show you what an editor’s job is like, but more importantly, it will allow you to see your own writing through someone else’s eyes, helping you to identify ways in which you can improve it.
1. Find a partner for this exercise and get their contact information. Those nifty new profiles we got recently on Bitmob include several ways for you to get in contact with your partner, so make sure your Twitter and/or Facebook fields are filled out. If you don’t have anyone in mind that you want to partner up with, speak up in the comments so you can hook up with someone. If there is an odd number of people, I will partner with whomever is left.
2. Write a 400- to 800-word article about any subject you like, but don’t proofread it. (Note that this is never a good idea in ordinary circumstances. This is only for the purposes of the prompt.)
3. Send your article to your partner for editing.
4. Edit your partner’s work. Remember to check for grammar, clarity, and proper formatting. However, don’t change the text itself. Instead make a parenthetical note in highlighted text next to any sentences you think should be changed. (Like this.) Explain why where necessary. If it is a grammar issue, identify what the issue is. If it is an awkward sentence, say that it is awkward and indicate what should be changed. Issues with whole paragraphs should go at the end of the problem paragraph and issues with the structure of the entire piece should go at the end of the piece. Be as brief as possible.
A good starting resource for editing is this Bitmob article about helpful writing tips, but there are a number of good grammar and style guides you can use. [Bitmob generally uses AP style. -Ed.] For formatting tips, check out this post. When you’re done, send the edits back to your partner.
5. When you get your own edited piece back, make all changes, indicate who edited it at the top of the article, and post the complete article to the Mobfeed with the tag Editor’s Choice. Also, post the edit sheet you received intact and unchanged as Page 2 of the article, highlighted notes and all.
Entries are due November 1, 2010. I’ll collect them and post a roundup of all the articles soon after that.
Remember: These roundups are usually seen by a lot of people. By participating in this challenge, you increase your chances of getting your work noticed. And as always, this challenge will hopefully help you improve your writing skills. Happy editing!