Einstein and Austen benefited from professional editing (and so can you)

Professional editing is not just for your “typical writer”, such as a first time novelist or a PhD student. It’s also for the literacy and academic elite. Some of the most prolific writers and thinkers in the history of the world needed editing help to ensure that their ideas came across clearly to their readers.

Beloved novelists and Nobel Prize winning scientists have employed professional editing services for centuries. Here are a few:

F SCOTT FITZGERALD

Fitzgerald wrote “The Great Gatsby,” which is widely considered to be one of the greatest novels in the history of the English language. It could have turned out to be “The Mediocre, Slightly Confusing Gatsby” if F. Scott Fitzgerald hadn’t sought out Maxell Lewis, a professional editor, to polish up his work before it was sent out to change the world. His spelling has been described as downright “lamentable”. Nearly 90 years after “Gatsby” was first published, readers are still focused on his Fitzgerald’s breathtaking storytelling ability instead of his technical writing mistakes, thanks to professional editing.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

When it came to the universal language of math, Einstein had no problem expressing his theories clearly. However, when the German born physicist needed to share his ideas through writing, he was in the exact same position as any ESL student handing in his first physics paper. Einstein reportedly struggled with writing in both German and English, but thanks to a little help from those in the editing world his work lives on in a clearer, cleaner state. Academic editing wasn’t available via the internet in Einstein’s day, but thanks to science, engineering and a few decades of technological wizardry, the new generation of great thinkers can access editing assistance faster than you can say e=mc2.

JANE AUSTEN

Austen was the 19th century author of such enduring tales as “Pride and Prejudice” who reportedly took little pride in her own punctuation, grammar and spelling skills. Austen’s brother claimed that she used no editor and that her manuscripts were completely “finished” when they left her desk. However, in 2010 an Oxford University professor discovered that Austen’s original manuscripts were riddled with technical problems that had been cleaned up by a professional editing expert.

Whether it’s a creative writing piece in need of structure or an academic research paper, editing services and proofreading services aren’t just for the Fitzgeralds, Austens and Einsteins of the world. In 2014, editors are readily available. Anyone with the courage to write something special can reach out to a professional editing company, and receive same help that was once reserved for the writing elite.