Editing or Re-Writing?

Publish or perish fever among academicians in local universities has pushed many academicians to
produce more articles than ever. The race to get these academic papers to be published in high
impact journals for MyRA scores have really driven some who are not too proficient in English to
seek for language editors’ assistance. One common assumption is that editors will improve overall
quality of the language and the writing, which was originally mediocre, would give the maximum
impact. Well, let us drive home some important facts here.

First, language editors are the last line of defense for minor errors. A paper which has language error
or word choice issues in every sentence screams for not editing, but re-writing. And re-writing is
unethical since the editor is often not an expert in the author’s field. Second, many academicians
send their papers for editing without a glossary. Editors are often forced to scramble for sources to
ensure that they are on the right track. Lastly, authors must not expect extreme “makeover” of a
paper that is originally flawed. Substantive editing is rare because it could involve restructuring of
sentences. In the process, main ideas might get distorted, and the actual meaning is compromised.

Academicians must aim for quality papers instead of the quantity of papers produced. Writing half-
baked academic papers with a lot of linguistic errors will not benefit anybody and no amount of
editing could give justice to that.

Zarlina Mohd Zamari

Senior Lecturer
Academy of Language Studies, UiTM Seri Iskandar Campus