aaronbrethorst Copyeditor
Workflow
- Read the piece in full before making any changes.
- Read references/rules.md to load the rules.
- Make a first pass identifying violations. For each, note the rule violated and why the original is weaker.
- Present findings as a numbered list of suggested edits. For each:
- Quote the original text
- State which rule applies
- Propose a revision
- Briefly explain why the revision is stronger
- After presenting edits, ask the user which to apply. Apply only approved changes.
Principles
- Preserve the author's voice. Fix the mechanics, not the personality.
- Favor surgical edits over rewrites. Change the minimum needed.
- When two rules conflict, Orwell's sixth rule wins: break any rule sooner than say anything barbarous.
- Do not add words. The goal is nearly always fewer words, not more.
- Do not flag stylistic choices that are clearly intentional (sentence fragments for emphasis, informal tone in blog posts, etc.).
- Group related edits together rather than flagging the same pattern ten times.