Editing Student Essays

I wish I had read "One Paragraph, Three Ways" many years ago when I began tutoring students for SAT and SSAT. I felt that most of the time I was completely rewriting and reworking their essays to fit my style. After reading this section I realized that what I should have been focusing on was their style, maintaining internal consistency within their essays. The author notes that by resisting the urge to rewrite someone's writing, the copyeditor will be able to "devote more of [their] attention to [their] primary responsibilities." Rather than change the writing around to fit the editor's voice, a copyeditor should devote time and energy into finding mechanical errors, internal inconsistencies, and grammatical mistakes.