Leaving out words

Needs editing: Here are two edits from one story found online. The writer simply left out words.

Boston College Frank Spaziani, whose Eagles lost to the Hokies for the title the past two seasons, said playing for the title can help convince the better players that they should come to your school. I assume he means Boston College coach Frank Spaziani.

"The season will have a longer-term effect," Johnson said. "If we can finish it off right, it'll be better. Anytime you win double-digit games it's a good year. Certainly we'd like to finish it off the right way."

From an article on another web site: Pam Tebow said she had been at speaking engagements as far away as Delaware and heard stories of how Peter helped changed someone’s life. I think it's helped change someone's life.

Also found today: Wake Forest will now have just over a week off as it finishes final exams. If you leave out now, you're saying the same thing. It's like saying that Wake Forest currently has 2,500 students (I don't know how many the school has). If you leave out currently, the meaning doesn't change, and the sentence is cleaner.

Contact: Reach me at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com.

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• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

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• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

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• Links to TG's stories online

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• What I do when I'm editing

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• Yer outta there!