Palin’s Resignation: The Edited Version (Vanity Fair)

On the day that the Alaskan Governor exits her office,  this was just too delicious to pass up.

As I say all the time, good writing is in the editing. Revision is critical. A good editor can take even Sarah Palin’s word salad and make it (mostly) understandable. It still may not be logical, but you can’t have everything.

Vanity Fair’s editors have marked up Sarah Palin’s resignation speech and published the results. I’m not comfortable posting the images here (and not sure it would be legal), but I can link you to it!

You know you can write better than Sarah Palin, so imagine what a little more polishing could do for your writing!

Lessons we can take away from this exercise:

• Cut  introductions from the beginning of sentences. Just start. Don’t preface sentences unless using a transitional word or phrase adds clarity or improves the flow.
• Reduce three and four word phrases to one or two words, or cut them entirely.
• Cut superfluous sentences that lead nowhere or are incongruous with the main idea of the paragraph.
• Make sure that all sentences have a subject and a verb.
• Use a consistent voice and verb tense. Active voice is better.
• Beware the dangling participle!

And so we bid farewll to Governor Palin and say hello to just good ‘ole  Sarah. You ‘betcha!

Tagged as: Palin, Proofreading, Revising, revision process, Vanity Fair, writing improvement