Editing hurts. Yes. It hurts when someone cuts your words, rearranges your sentences, deletes your creative use of language, etc. It hurts. The first thing a writer has to do is leave their ego at the door. Most writers write with passion and passion doesn't always reflect good grammar or proper use of punctuation. I recently edited for the CEO of a large corporation. She was taken aback by my edits and questioned if she wanted someone cutting her writing up like I did. But, while she might be a great CEO, her grammar, word choices and sentence structure were lacking. Most people, when writing with passion, give little thought to how their words are put together. The words spill out with feeling while grammar is laid aside. And that's ok. That's actually how it should be. We should write with passion.....then hire a good editor to make our points flow well and be cohesive. We editors make your passion shine by clothing your writing in easy-to-read prose with good ...

That. It's nearly an enemy to an editor. When we talk, we use "that" as a transition word to help us keep our thoughts flowing while we talk. It gives us a chance to pause and think while we are speaking. "That" keeps a listener engaged because it lends anticipation to our speech, whether used in a conversation or a formal speech. It's true for any level of speech and perfectly acceptable. The opposite is true when writing. "That" is by far the word I delete most often. It's totally unnecessary in most writings and should be eliminated 90% of the time. The remaining 10% tells you it shouldn't be completely eliminated from all writings. Using it sparingly is key. Here's a relevant example. In the sentence above, I said,  "The remaining 10% tells you it shouldn't be completely eliminated from all writings."  The vast majority of people would write,  "The remaining 10% tells you that it shouldn't...