Saturday, July 4, 2009

Editing in history

While I was watching fireworks tonight, it occurred to me that today's holiday can be traced back to a document. Of course, that document was the Declaration of Independence and it had nothing to do with fireworks or picnics.

I was pleased to learn (courtesy of the Library of Congress' web site) that the Declaration of Independence's author, Thomas Jefferson, wrote at least one rough draft. He made many changes to his first attempt at writing what would become one of America's most important documents. Lines of text were crossed out and words were added here and there above existing text.

Writers, take heart. Even the author of this famous collection of words didn't get it right the first time.

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