Welcome to Week 4! Thursday, sadly, will be the final session of our workshop. We hope you've enjoyed the last month and will be asking for your thoughts in a post-workshop survey.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though! We still have some work to do ...
Before Thursday's class on editing and polishing (with resident publication gurus, Jane and Val), we'd like you to look at your piece of writing with two important principles in mind:
1. SHORTEN AND CLARIFY.
Remember Don Berwick’s advice? He said he writes a piece in a single sitting, “Then I revisit it, and try to cut out maybe 30% of the words. Sometimes reading it out loud helps me to find waste.”
And remember Jim Reinertsen’s advice? He said, “Edit. Relentlessly. I almost never send anything off, even an email, without reading it through at least once and cleaning up the clumsy syntax, unclear referent, or whatever.”
Read through your piece and, using Track Changes, do two things:
1) Shorten it wherever possible. 2) Clarify anything that’s unclear.
Read through your piece and find at least ONE place where you used the passive voice. Then rewrite it in the active voice, using Track Changes.
Please bring two hard copies of your new marked-up document to class on Thursday.
P.S. We encourage you to send your draft to a faculy member for assistance before Thursday. Many of you have taken advantage of this already.
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