Monday, February 6, 2023

In defense of editing

A longtime Chicago Sun-Times columnist resigned over what he considered excessive editing of an upcoming column. 

“Good ‘editing’ does not necessarily mean making wholesale changes,” the columnist commented on his website. “Punctuation, grammar and fact checking are also a part of editing. In column writing, maintaining the writer’s voice and choice — notwithstanding any factual errors — of how to tell a particular story are critical.”

It sounded like he was suggesting that not a word of his writing should be changed, although he also said that everyone needs editing.