If only my students had the problems I'm having

Source: CAPL

This has been the week of serious editing to convert chapter and article length pieces of writing into conference length. And, boy, has it been hard.

Both conference papers are presentations of large bodies of work, which means I've got 20-25 pages that have to be trimmed down to less than 10. That's hard. My students complain it's hard to meet the minimum page requirements on assignments, but right now I wish I had that problem.

Cutting all those words and all that argument (which is, of course, brilliant) is a challenge. Cut too much and suddenly you don't make sense. Cut too little and you have to deliver the paper at machine-gun pace so that both you and your audience are exhausted by the end of it and didn't understand a word.

I think I've done it, but the only way to know for sure after hours upon hours of editing is to stick both in the proverbial desk drawer for a week and then look at them again. Here's hoping a week from now I won't be panicking because they didn't turn out as well as I think!