1
Before: There were several reasons that made the committee decide to delay the launch. After: The committee delayed the launch for three reasons.
10 Line Editing Examples
Use these examples to study structure, specificity, tone, and variation. They are demonstrations—not claims about a real person or organization unless the example itself makes that explicit.
Before you copy
What to notice in the examples
Good line editing makes the prose more precise and readable while preserving the writer’s voice, explains recurring patterns rather than silently rewriting everything, and occurs after major structural decisions are stable.
- Clarity and emphasis within sentences.
- Paragraph flow, transitions, rhythm, and information order.
- Diction, tone, voice, repetition, and unnecessary abstraction.
- Consistency with viewpoint, audience, genre, and intended reading pace.
2
Before: Mara walked quickly across the room and went over to the window. After: Mara crossed the room and stopped at the window.
3
Before: The report, which was submitted late, contained several errors that were significant. After: The late report contained several significant errors.
4
Rhythm edit: Keep a long sentence that builds pressure, then follow it with a short consequence: The alarms failed one by one as the storm flooded the lower deck. Then the lights went out.
5
Voice-preserving edit: Replace a generic formal phrase with the character’s established blunt wording rather than making every narrator sound polished.
6
Paragraph-flow edit: Move the sentence explaining the deadline before the list of consequences so readers understand why the details matter.
7
Diction edit: Replace “very tired” with “foggy after twenty hours awake” when the concrete condition matters more than intensity.
8
Repetition edit: Keep the repeated phrase when it creates deliberate cadence; cut it when three neighboring paragraphs merely restate the same point.
9
A line edit may replace three explanatory sentences with one concrete sentence because the issue is rhythm and emphasis, not grammar.
10
Line editing can preserve a deliberate fragment in dialogue or close POV even when a grammar checker flags it, because effect and voice are part of the editorial decision.
Keep the underlying decision or pattern, then replace the subject, evidence, relationship, constraints, and tone with details that belong to your situation. If your final line still works after swapping only one noun, it may be too close to the example.