I am curious. For what reasons do we usually edit our posts? Spelling? After thoughts?
For me, it is always, always the same two issues. I forget to bold the name of posters that I mention, so I edit to go back and bold it.
Any other time I edit, it is because I have used slang terms. I go back and remove them so that you guys don’t have to put up with what I really sound like!
Usually spelling though I don’t worry so much about that. Sometimes I realize I didn’t complete my thought and have to add another sentence or two. For some reason these thoughts never come to me when I preview, only after I submit.
Often, it’s just that I was typing quickly and not fully paying attention to what I was posting, so I misspelled something, used slang no one here would understand, or brutally raped the English language (grammar).
I notice some people post random letters so that they can quickly fill a post slot (get their post in early) and then spend the 5 minutes composing their message properly now that they’ve got the early slot.
ETA: I’m terrible for afterthoughts, so most of my edits are those.
My reasons for editing, in approximate order of occurrence:
*Noticed a misspelling or missed word after posting.
*Decided to revise what I wrote.
*Thought of something more to say.
*Saw that somebody else had already said what I said and deleted post.
*Decided my post might be misconstrued and deleted it.
*Hit the submit key accidentally and hadn’t finshed my post.
Mostly because of an afterthought. If I notice the typos, that’s reason number two – but I usually don’t notice the little sods 'till way too late. shrug
Mostly I edit for missing a keystroke somewhere. The other reason I edit is pre-emptive defense–realizing some dingbat is probably going to take offense to something I said unless I add some kind of qualifier.
I end up editing as the result of a misplaced sense of confidence that what I write is coherent on the first try. So sure am I of my authorial brilliance that I often hit “post quick reply” without bothering to carefully review my keyboard blurts.
Then, once the post is out there, I have a tendency to read it. Admiring my own insights, I guess, not that they deserve it.
That’s when I notice that in my haste I have written one or more sentences that are impossible to understand, so I quickly hit the edit button in order to clean them up.
I think I am better about this than I used to be. I usually try to preview my posts now.
Clarification, maybe half the time. The other half is to correct mistakes resulting from many, many revisions. I change things and change them and finally submit and then I realize I changed part of a sentence but not another part, and now it makes no sense, or my verb tenses no longer agree, or I have an unneccessary comma or something.
I usually post something, and then look at it, and realize I left two of my thoughts incomplete, and edit them in. I really need to start using preview more, and the quick response box less