Editing Your Own Work – Part 1

Thomas W. Jones, PhD, CG, CGG
May 21, 2024
1284 views
CC
SyllabusSyllabus
SyllabusSyllabus

About this webinar

Genealogists write. Their written narratives include stories of ancestral families, biographies of individual ancestors, and explanations supporting genealogical proofs. For their writing to succeed, genealogists—like all effective writers—repeatedly self-edit everything they write. The process results in polished products that the genealogist’s readers will understand, enjoy, and cherish. \n \nEmphasizing genealogical narrative, these two webinars will addresses the self-editing process. Part 1 will focus on “big-picture” editing, including stages of self-editing; focus; keeping the writer out of the narrative; editing the writing’s overall structure, organization, and flow; and improving major and minor subdivisions of written genealogical narratives, including paragraphing. Part 2 will focus on “nitty-gritty” editing, including capitalization, punctuation, sentence structure, spelling, word choice, and reducing word count.

About the speaker

Tom Jones is an award-winning genealogical researcher, writer, editor, and educator. He co-edited the National Genealogical Society Quarterly in 2003 through 2018, and he is the author of the textbook...
Learn more...

Comments (60)

Sort byNewest
  1. KP
    Karen Prytula
    1 year ago

    This was a great webinar. I liked that the speaker didn't race through the presentation, and spoke slowly enough that we could absorb what he was saying and take notes where necessary. Also his use of examples was great too. Respectfully, other presenters could learn from him.

    2
  2. JS
    Jessica Sheeran
    1 year ago

    Tom gave a lot of very practical advice with plenty of examples. This will definitely influence my writing!

  3. LK
    Lene Draeby Kottal
    1 year ago

    Thank you for an outstanding presentation packed with recommendations for how to write clearly. I am looking forward to part 2.

  4. BA
    Beverly Anderson
    1 year ago

    One of the best that I've heard.

  5. AS
    Anna van Steel
    1 year ago

    Lots of great knowledge shared.

  6. WV
    Webinar Viewer
    1 year ago

    Tom provided a thoroughly interesting presentation , and was fully on-topic.

  7. WV
    Webinar Viewer
    1 year ago

    Gives a writer a lot to consider. It may mean I need to do a major re-write of my book. Sigh.

  8. FB
    Freddie Lloyd Blackwell
    1 year ago

    Outstanding, great material and well presented. Thank you.

Related webinars