What Can an Editor Do?
What can an editor do when it comes to producing court documents?
Consider the following Statement of Fact from a Complaint and Memorandum prepared by the National Legal Research Group on behalf of a client, a law firm in Statesville, North Carolina:
In 1971, Burns established F&M Newstand at its present location. At that time, the location was within an unincorporated portion of Rowan County, North Carolina. From its establishment, F&M Newstand sold adult-oriented books and magazines. Since that time, F&M Newstand has added to its inventory adult-oriented videos for sale, rental, and for on-site viewing.
Here it is again, after an editor has touched it:
In 1971, Burns established F & M Newstand at its present location within an unincorporated portion of Rowan County, North Carolina. Since its establishment, F & M Newstand has sold adult-oriented books and magazines, and has rented, sold, and featured adult-oriented videos.
It’s shorter, but it provides the same information. (Check, and you’ll find that the edited version is more accurate than NLRG’s.)
That’s one thing an editor can do — reduce the space needed to present information by (often by 10% to 20%). That means — in a brief limited to, say, 40 pages — you get to an extra 4 to 8 more pages.
