The Writing and Editing Pattern

Unit ID: PAW-M09-U01 Estimated active time: 20-25 minutes

The family

Drafting from notes, rewriting for length or clarity, adapting a message for a different reader, turning rough points into something sendable.

The defining feature is that you supply the content and want help with the form.

What this family gets wrong

Two things, consistently.

The content drifts — a figure moves, a caveat softens, a hedge becomes a claim. And the voice flattens into the default register Module 4 described.

The pattern below guards against both.

The pattern

PATTERN: writing and editing

Use when:        you have the content and want help with the form
Do not use when: you do not yet know what you want to say

Slots
  Audience line:   who reads it, what they know, what they do next
  Source:          your notes or draft, between markers
  Format:          length, structure, where it will be read
  Voice sample:    two paragraphs of your own writing

Fixed rules
  - use only the source; add no facts, causes or recommendations
  - preserve exactly: all figures, dates, and any sentence I mark KEEP
  - match the sample's sentence length and level of hedging
  - do not match the sample's subject
  - where something is missing, ask rather than fill

Output spec:  the draft, then "Changed from source", then "Questions"
Review:       trace every figure; read aloud; check the KEEP sentences survived
Known failure: caveats soften on revision -- restate KEEP lines in every
               follow-up, not just the first

The "Changed from source" section

Asking the output to list what it altered turns a slow comparison into a quick read.

It will not be complete — you still spot-check — but it catches most of the drift, and it makes the drift visible rather than something you have to hunt for.

For high-stakes writing, invert it

Where the words carry your judgement — an apology, a decision, a refusal — write the draft yourself and use the pattern for critique only.

Module 4 made this point about voice. It applies doubly to anything you will be held to.

Mini practice

Fill the pattern for one writing task you repeat.

Run it, then check the KEEP sentences and every figure.

Add whatever drifted to the pattern's "known failure" line.

Mark complete