When I think of editing, I usually think about correcting things like sentence structure and misspellings. Some things would need to be checked for continuity, or to make sure the author didn't accidentally write the exact same sentence twice in a row (which I have done before).
But there's a lot more to editing than that. Sometimes a document can have zero issues with grammar or punctuation, but be seriously lacking in flow. There's almost always a way to improve any piece of writing.
Take, for instance, this excerpt of a list of helpful websites college students can go to in order to find information about different careers:
Occupational Outlook Handbook
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
Search different types of jobs and research their tasks, technology, future outlook, etc., plus see other related jobs in that area.
Click on the “Pay” tab to see a potential starting salary and ending salary range
What can I do with the major?
https://weber.edu/careerservices
Select “Students”, “Info by College”, then click “whatcanidowiththismajor.com”
Discover multiple possibilities and areas of employment for your field of study.
See suggestions for what you can do now to better prepare to work in that aspect of the field.
There aren't any glaring errors in this document, but it can still be improved. It does well at separating the information for the separate websites so it's clear what things can be done with which website, but the bullet points aren't very cohesive. Some of them detail the things students can do, while others give instructions on how to do them. The way I would fix this is to make the main bullet points say the things that can be done with subsections giving instructions on how to do them. I would also reword the bullet points that start with "search," which sounds like an instruction but in context is actually saying that students can search if they choose to. As is, it adds unnecessary confusion.
Also, the information isn't 100% accurate. When I followed the instructions in the What can I do with the major? section, "Info by College" was not an option under "Students." This is also a part of editing; it is important to go through the information you're giving other people to make sure that it isn't out of date or otherwise incorrect.
When editing, it can be easy to get bogged down with thoughts of correcting small mistakes, which can mean you miss more important things. It's easiest to look for the big things like flow before focusing on smaller things like word choice. The most important thing is that the piece of writing fulfills its function as best as it can.
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