Editing your writing

Editing is a key element of effective writing. There are three elements of effective editing:

• Revising – relates to content
• Editing – relates to structure, language and style
• Proofreading – relates to accuracy and consistency

Remember: Editing your own writing is difficult - it is often hard when reading your own work to see what might need some attention. It is important to leave time between drafts and editing.

 

Employing a professional editor

While is it permissible to use the services of a professional editor, there are rules around this and you should consult the GRS: La Trobe does not offer a recommended list of editors. If you are looking for someone to help with editing your thesis, you might start with the Professional association for Australian and New Zealand editors’ database.

 

Some tips for effective editing:

• Know your weaknesses – look for these.
• Read your work aloud, including the punctuation – does it make sense?
• Ask a lay person to read your work. Can they follow it?
• Print your writing out – it is harder to edit on screen.
• To help you see your work with fresh eyes try changing the font or the colour of the text.
• Eliminate as many words as possible without changing the meaning.
• Eliminate as much jargon as you can.
• Aim for clarity above everything else.

 

Using online and AI tools

We have been using various types of AI tools (such as Grammarly) to help with writing for a while. However, more recently the emergence of more advanced AI platforms based on large language models has meant we now have to give more consideration to if and how we use these tools in research and writing.

While there are potential benefits to using AI as a tool in your writing (for example, to help edit wordiness) you need to consider very carefully the implications of doing this. Where does your writing go once it has been entered into an AI site? Who has control over it? How might it be used to train others? Do you still hold the copyright? These questions are particularly important for PhD students whose individual and unique contribution to knowledge is a key criterion for assessment. The implications, both legal and ethical, of some of these questions are still very much open to question, so you need to be very careful about how you use these tools.

All research at La Trobe is informed by the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research, a key framework document for all aspects of your research, not just editing. La Trobe has also developed a responsible AI adoption policy that you should familiarise yourself with before using AI in any part of your research. For an overview of the issues have a look at the Library Guide for using AI.

For up-to-date information about the range of AI tools that are currently on the market, have a look at the Ithaka S+R Generative AI Product Tracker. This offers unbiased assessment of many of the tools you may encounter in your research and writing.

• Both Microsoft Word and Apple Pages have editing apps which can be switched on as you edit documents.
• Grammarly can be added to the word processing software you are using. It will make suggestions about improvements to your writing. The basic version is free; a more academic version is available for a fee.
• Writefull is another editing application that has been specifically designed to edit academic writing. It can be downloaded as an add-on, although it gives you limited access unless you subscribe.
• The Hemingway App is an online tool that suggests edits for your writing. It is free if you use the website-based version.
• The Writer's Diet test analyses a sample of your writing to help you identify language features that may be impeding clarity. You need to enter in about 250 words of your own academic writing and run the test.
• Writing Well is Hard helps you compare a section of your own writing to that of a target text. It can be useful for identifying the areas you need to strengthen when you want to emulate other writers.

Remember: these are AI tools, and they only offer suggestions about the surface level of your writing (rarely the main problem at graduate level). They can and frequently do make mistakes, so you need to make your own judgements about whether to follow their advice.