Perhaps I am a nitpicker, but for a while I earned my income as a contract technical writer. I wrote, I edited my stuff and then I passed my writings to an editor. He sometimes responded with tiny touchups, and at times he was cruel. But the objective from both of us was to have a succinct clearly written document.
I would like to illustrate the editing that I did to the following posting
Background
We're looking to reduce the learning gradient that new folks need to
hike up when they look to contribute to Fedora. Users looking to give
back to the community is amazing. We need to go out and give them as
much help as we can. The importance here is that most of them will be
new to the work flows, SIGS, teams and processes that Fedora community
uses. Quite a few of them will be new to Linux even. For these novices,
learning all that is required to become contributors is a daunting task.
However, what is important is that all of them have the *potential* to
make awesome contributors!
After a primary edit.
We're looking to reduce the learning gradient that new folks need to hike up
achieve when they look to contribute to Fedora. Users looking to give
back to the community is amazing. We need to go out and give them as
much help as we can. The importance here is that most of them will be
new to the work flows, SIGS, teams and processes that the Fedora community
uses. Quite a few Some of them will be new to Linux even. For these novices,
learning all that is required to become contributors is a daunting task.
However, what is important is that all of them have the *potential* to
make awesome contributors!
The edited version has the word achieve to replace the "hike up" slang. Words removed are in red, words inserted are in bold. One task of the editor is to reduce wordiness. (Quite a few --> Some). The word "even" was redundant.
The absolute final after editing follows.
We're looking to reduce the learning gradient that new folks need
to
achieve when they look to contribute to Fedora. Users looking to give
back to the community is amazing. We need give them as
much help as we can. The importance here is that most of them will be
new to the work flows, SIGS, teams and processes that the Fedora community
uses. Some of them will be new to Linux. For these novices,
learning all that is required to become contributors is a daunting task.
However, what is important is that all of them have the *potential* to
make awesome contributors!
I have offered to edit stuff that you write, if you so desire. Is there an need for an English language editor?
Regards
Leslie
Mr. Leslie Satenstein
SENT FROM MY OPEN SOURCE LINUX SYSTEM.