• 2 min read

Editing

Technical writing - The goal of editing and how to do it properly.

Now that you have your first draft ready. It’s time to edit out unwanted things.

Goal of editing

The goal of editing is to fix the issues in your text.

Fix grammar

A critical goal of editing is to fix grammatical issues in your text.

Check content style

Like all of us have unique biometrics, we also have a unique writing style. However, unlike your biometrics, it changes throughout your writing journey. Also, we get inspired by other writers, and we sometimes mix multiple styles.

Checking content style means ensuring you have consistent writing throughout the whole blog, article, or book.

Content style guide

One way to ensure consistency in your content is to use a content style guide. It’s a set of rules determining how you should write certain things. For example, a rule can be “you should use simple quotes instead of curly quotes in your text.”

Creating your style guide can be challenging as an individual writer, especially when starting your career. Luckily, most prominent tech companies have publicly available content style guides that you can adopt. Here is the list of some style guides:

If you feel overwhelmed with these extensive guides, I’ve created a tiny content style guide.

Tools

  • Grammarly: It’s an online tool to check the grammar. A Visual Studio Code extension checks the grammar within the editor.
  • Vale: Vale is a linter to check your content style. Vale comes with Google and Microsoft Style guides that you can use immediately. Look at vale docs to learn how to set it up.

Exercise

  • Review your first draft and remove the grammar and content style issues.
  • Optional: Setup vale and lint your content with it.

Further reading