The Wardman Wire

Over at Poliblog Perspective I’ve put up a demonstration of the process that I go through when editing an article.

Using Sadie Smith’s new Westminster Watch report, I have posted “before” and “after” examples.

I have done the pair of articles as a tutorial demonstration for new people joining the blog, it may be of wider interest.

Guidelines

There are only a few guidelines I give to people writing for the blog, and I try to keep editing as light as possible:

• Nothing actionable (i.e., don’t get me sued).
• Write as if for an intelligent tabloid publication or at the level of the Economist.
• Unless there is a good reason not to do so, use regular Subheads such that they convey the sense and flow of your argument or article. A good test is to delete the text, and see if the headings and subheadnings still give the gist of the article.

Tags: wardman wire editing process, subheads, headingsm style guide, editorial guidelines[tags]wardman wire editing process, subheads, headingsm style guide, editorial guidelines[/tags]