You’ve been working on your document for ages. You are finally happy with it. You might even have had it edited by someone. Then you make some last minute changes.

Changes made at the last minute can be more likely to have mistakes for several reasons. You have not looked at these words as often as other parts of the document, and you may be making changes when you are tired, stressed or rushed.

Here’s what to look out for with last minute changes:

• If you change a date or spelling in one part of the document, check you have changed all occurrences throughout the document.
• If you re-arrange a sentence or a list, check the punctuation to ensure the full stop is not left out or duplicated.
• If you add a dot point to a list, check it is in the same style as the rest of the list and has the right punctuation.
• If you change a heading, check your capitalisation is consistent with other headings of the same level.
• If you change the tense in a sentence, check all the verbs have been changed and are consistent.
• If you change from plural to singular (or vice versa) in a sentence, check all verbs are consistent with the change.
• If you add or delete a table or figure, check any cross-references and numbering are updated.
• If you add an extra word, sentence or paragraph, check the spacing and pagination of the document. Does the text still fit? You may need to re-do the table of contents.

To communicate your message effectively in reports and presentations, consider using both text and non-text elements. Non-text elements can include graphics such as photos, drawings, diagrams or maps as well as tables.

If you want to break up a long text-heavy document with some images, make sure your images support or enhance your key message. A message can be undermined by poor choice of images. For instance, in a document to convey that a new transport project will improve the walking environment, use an image of people walking, not empty streets.

Think about how best to present your information clearly – text in paragraphs, lists of dot points or perhaps a table. A table may replace some text or complement the text.

Make sure any non-text elements are well-labelled and as properly identified and referenced as in-text references. Images may need the date and location in the captions, and tables often need explanatory footnotes.

The aim is for people to remember your message for the right reason, so think about what that is and use the most appropriate text and non-text elements to convey it.

Powerpoint presentations are a common way to present information to audiences. But you don’t want your audience to suffer death by Powerpoint. Even Powerpoint presentations can benefit from editing. The top tip is be restrained.

Tips for editing presentations

• Be restrained in the use of features, transitions, colours and fonts.
• Don’t use every feature in a single presentation.
• Reduce the number of slides.
• Reduce the number of words on each slide.
• Use images or simple tables instead of words.

Tips for editing text

• Be careful of abbreviations. Abbreviations may save space but they can be harder to read.
• Choose headings carefully.
• Check how dot points break over two lines.
• Don’t paste in text directly from a written article.
• Reformat tables to present numbers clearly.

Remember the aim of any presentation is to clearly communicate your message. What is your message? Think about what you want the audience to remember after your presentation. Will the audience remember your message or the overuse of features such as transitions and animations? Only use features if they enhance your message.

Writers use editors to get their work “right”, but what does right mean? No two editors will edit a piece of writing exactly the same way, but that doesn’t mean one is right and one is wrong. Often there will be several ways to suggest changes to improve writing. For instance, a previous post discussed ways to rewrite sentences to avoid gender-specific pronouns and be gender-inclusive.

Getting it right in editing means:

• right for the audience
• right for the purpose of the writing
• right for the author’s voice.

Getting it right also means the basics:

• right spelling for names, organisations and places
• right details such as times, dates and references
• right grammar.

But language is always changing and what is considered right can vary over time as usage evolves.

What is wrong in editing? Introducing errors when editing is wrong. If the editor is unsure of the meaning or cannot check a detail independently, the editor will make suggestions and include notes and queries for the author to confirm. The final responsibility for a piece of writing belongs with the author.

Increase the chances of people reading your emails and taking the action you want by getting your email headings right. A clear and informative title or heading with a date and action will help people respond.

Here are some tips for email headings:

• When sending emails about activities such as meetings where the date is important, include the date in the heading.
• When requesting action by a certain date, include that in the heading too.
• A short heading of one or two words may be easy to read, but is more likely to be mysterious rather than informative. But don’t make the heading so long it disappears off the screen.
• If it may not be clear to recipients who the email is from, you may want to include extra information in the title.
• Include information in the heading to distinguish your latest email from regular emails with similar content such as monthly newsletters or regular reports and updates.

Here are some examples:

• Use “RSVP for talk by Monday 24 March”, not “Reply soon”
• Use “Reminder: meeting on 10 am Wed 16 April”, not “Reminder about meeting”
• Use “Subscribe by Fri 28 March for a special offer”, not “Special offer”
• Use “Urgent: reply due by 9 am Monday”, not “Urgent”
• Use “April 2014 newsletter attached”, not “Current newsletter”.

The aim is to make it easier for your recipients to see what your email is about and what they have to do by when. If the text of your email is long, consider using headings within your email as well to make the content clearer.

International Women’s Day on 8 March 2014 is an opportunity to focus on the importance of being inclusive by using gender-neutral or gender-free language. Simple choices in occupational titles or pronouns can make a big difference.

For instance,

• use Chair, not Chairman
• use spokesperson, not spokesman
• use web manager, not web master
• use actor, not actress
• use labour or human resources, not manpower
• use the verb staff, not man.

Avoid gender-specific pronouns to ensure gender-neutral and bias-free references to individuals. There are several options to rewrite sentences, and the best choice will depend on the circumstances.

For instance, in the sentence “Every award nominee should bring his ticket”, choices are:

• rewrite the sentence so the subject and pronoun are plural: “Nominees should bring their tickets”
• use the gender-free subject you and pronoun your: “You should bring your ticket”
• repeat the gender-neutral subject noun: “Every nominee should bring the nominee’s ticket”
• leave out the pronoun: “Every nominee should bring the ticket”
• use the plural pronoun “their” with a singular subject: “Every nominee should bring their ticket”.

The last option is increasing in use.

In the 12 hour clock, use lower case for am and pm and don’t use full stops. The Style Manual (see last post) recommends that because am and pm are always preceded by a numeral, they can be treated like other symbols associated with numbers which are unpunctuated. Put a space between the numeral and the am or pm, so the time is easier to read.

By the way, am is an abbreviated form of the Latin ante meridiem (meaning before midday or noon) and pm for post meridiem meaning after noon.

A full stop should be used to separate the hours from the minutes (not a colon which is common in American English).

To minimise confusion between midnight and noon, use 12 midnight (instead of 12 am, representing the start of the 24 hour day) and 12 noon (instead of 12 pm).

For times on the hour such as 11 am, there is no need to show the zeros (11.00 am) as it doesn’t add any meaning and makes it harder to distinguish between 11 am and times past the hour such as 11.30 am.

These guidelines reflect the trend towards minimal punctuation. Punctuation is used to help communicate clearly. If it doesn’t help, then leave it out.

There are different conventions for expressing numbers in text.

Remember, the aim is to communicate clearly and make it easy for the reader to understand. It is usually easier to recognise a number when written in numerals (6, 27, 83, 214), than in words (six, twenty-seven, eighty-three, two hundred and fourteen).

I prefer to use numerals, particularly in statistical or other texts where numbers are important and frequent. In general text where numbers may not be so important or are rare, write numbers as words up to nine, then use numerals for 10 and above.

Always use numerals for measurements such as degrees, metres or kilometres, whether the measurement is written as a word (metres) or symbol (m). When a number starts a sentence, write the number in words, or rearrange the sentence.