{"id":64,"date":"2015-07-13T10:19:19","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T10:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/?p=64"},"modified":"2015-06-23T13:20:42","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T13:20:42","slug":"editing-killing-kittens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/2015\/07\/13\/editing-killing-kittens\/","title":{"rendered":"Editing: Killing Kittens"},"content":{"rendered":"

KILL THE KITTEN<\/strong><\/p>\n

A friend of mine used to be a journalist, and she once told me that they used the catchphrase \u201ckill the kitten\u201d all the time in the office. Although it sounds like a ghoulish bit of journalist slang, this is actually really great writing advice, just like the literary saying \u201ckill your darlings\u201d.<\/a>Why?<\/p>\n

Particularly when you\u2019re writing about something you\u2019re really interested in, it can sometimes be difficult to tell the difference between material that really needs to be in the essay or report for the sake of your argument and material that you have included just because you like it. This is especially common with long projects like dissertations: the process of research can throw up huge amounts of interesting ideas, facts and information, and it can sometimes be hard to focus on the things that are really important. The material that you include solely because you like it is the kitten. It is pleasing you, as kittens do, and that is why you have kept it.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong with putting information that makes you happy into your writing. Sometimes a point is productively demonstrated or reinforced through reference to something that is witty or unusual. For example, Mikhail Gorbachev earned the nickname \u201cComrade Orange Juice\u201d when he tried to introduce policies that would reduce the amount of alcohol drunk by the general Russian population. This is a colourful detail, and if you were to write an essay about the public perception of Gorbachev\u2019s morally-driven economic policy, it could also be a pertinent fact. It would demonstrate the ridicule and resistance that this measure was met with, and it would strengthen your essay by providing evidence for your argument.<\/p>\n

A problem arises, however, when the information is only there because you like it. If you were writing an essay about another aspect of Gorbachev\u2019s premiership, this same fun fact could just be an irrelevant bauble on your essay that detracted from the main point. Now, baubles are lovely, but there isn\u2019t much room for them in academic writing, for which prettiness is optional but functionality is key. All of the information in any piece of academic writing needs to be doing a job, rather than being ornamental or entertaining. For example, I was recently writing about James Bond, and I desperately wanted to include a reference to \u201c007 in New York\u201d, a short story in which Ian Fleming provides Bond\u2019s personal recipe for scrambled eggs<\/a>. There isn\u2019t a much clearer example of an unnecessary bauble than that! It wasn\u2019t doing anything at all for my argument, and was only there to please me. I had to \u2013 however reluctantly \u2013 get rid of it.<\/p>\n

The problem is that it\u2019s not always going to be this clear. How do you know which points are the most important? How can you be more concise? Here are some questions I like to try on my own writing:<\/p>\n