On Mon, 19 Jun 2006, Peter Bowyer wrote:
Do you have any tips or suggestions for making the editing process smoother?
Peter, I can offer what I developed as a workable solution for me over several decades. I wear two hats, but not at the same time. I wear my writing hat and put out a stream of text. I'll stop and consider sentences and words, but basically my first draft is getting the ideas down. This is after developing the ToC, of course. A couple of days later (if I have the time), I take off my writer's hat and put on my editor's hat. I find all the sentences that are much too long (that's the way I speak and write), and make two- to three-sentences of them. I look at a sentence and ask myself what I'm trying to express here, and would it be clear to someone who did not know as much as I about the subject? Also, I tend to do a lot of this review in xdvi (or whatever the latest flavor is). I can increase the magnification so I don't need reading glasses, and it lets me see it as a printed page. I can also see overfull horizontal lines and missing pieces (such as in the headers or incorrect page numbering). Or, I'll produce the pdf output and do the critical editing reading in xpdf. Both are easier to follow than the screen-wide LyX window that I use. When I'm sufficiently satisfied, I ask others to review what I've written, and I do a final read-through on a printed copy. I, too, can see things on the printed page that I miss on the screen. But, looking at the dvi or pdf output on screen is almost as good. Actually, it's probably just as good. :-) HTH, Rich -- Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D. | The Environmental Permitting Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.(TM) | Accelerator <http://www.appl-ecosys.com> Voice: 503-667-4517 Fax: 503-667-8863
