What you get
The reader cannot tell anyone edited it, which is exactly the goal.
Human-Voice Editing That Only Subtracts
Added 2026-08-06It does not aim to improve the writing; it clears what trips the reader and leaves the rest alone. Human voice breaks into three parts: a speaker standing somewhere, judgement paid for with the body, handwork left visible.
All seven rules converge: every change must name what tripped in the original; three edits per passage is normal, ten is an accident; roughness is handwork until proven otherwise; no aphorisms; when unsure, describe plainly; and changes are itemised, veto left to the author. The stated ceiling is invisibility — the best outcome is a reader who never senses an editor was there. Order is fixed, principles before checklist, because skipping to the checklist means scanning the whole text and fixing handwork as if it were a flaw.