Beta Reader/Ediotor
Do you simply note the errors in a manuscript as you read it, and then leave the author to correct them. Or do acitvely fix them as you go along.
I'm trying to decide which modus operandi to go with, especially when I'm proofreading a manuscript that displays the same problem consistently.
I haven't read your other replies but wanted to jump right in here.
I am thinking that you are confusing or mixing the beta and editor roles.
I am far from an expert or experienced but i have a feeling one of the very first thing a professional editor told me was that he refused point balnk to rewrite my errors. When he sent me the first bunch of errors, one was a biggie and right at the beginning. According to his knowledge and experience what i proposed as a course of action was wrong. Fully. Completely.
It is a military thing, he has 21 years, retired, as a marine. I proposed that subordinates snuck intot he hero's house and "pounced" on him to wake hm from an acknowledged deep sleep.
He said that very very wrong.
In the first place waking an unarmed combat specialist by getting close to him, within striking range was close to suicide and one bone was certain to be broken at the very least, someone might actually be killed. He said that to wake such a person, or someone like him, it was best to approach as noisey as possible and if sound was possible, front lines etc, then you would kick his foot and leap back 6 feet as a minmum. Once he was awake or semi conscious then you might start quiet voice communications.
So with this glaring fault and appreciating his knowledge and actual experience, nothing to do with his editing ability, I said "Please go ahead and rewrite that apssage as it shoudl be". He repleid quickly and aid "NO!" in a big way.
He siad that it would not be in my "voice" and that I had a "voice" which was a high compliment and not sicphantic in anyway. he said should he write it, then it ould be in voice not mine and that would be instantly recognisable to any experienced reader, the two would be seen as very different and they would be confused at the kleast, annoyed and throw the book away at worst.
Tjis was the first age, the first poaragraph and scene. To insult and assault a reader in such a manner he said could cripple my name as a writer and wreck any potential career in a significant and irreversible way.
So, i suggest to you that altho you can critique it is very different from an edit. My connection with this professional editor and two amateur editors is that they will bracket words and passages that are wrong and offer either replacement ideas or suggested rewrites but they dion't want to give me too much of a set of words that i simply insert them as the change of "voice" would be a criminal act.
I have the feeling that if you have a strong desire to edit and reword poor passages then you may be better to work with th writer as he is producing it so you can influence them with changes b4 anything gets set in concrete. Do you see what I mean here?
Personally I would have been open to editorial rewwrites and inserts, but having had their advice and understanding what they are saying I accept that you tell me that this is wrong and how it needs to be fixed but leave that totally open for me to write that in my own style, my "voice".
I think you would make an excellent writing partner for someone like me. IO have lots of great ideas and story lines. I believe I can "tell a good sory". People tell me that I can tell stories both verbally and now in writing, but I have a zero technical English ability. i am lucky to start a paragraph but incapable of knowing when and where to do it. i have serious problems with sentence structure grammar and grandpa, and everything else as technical product. All of my work needs help even spelling get sa serious hit. i submitted a page for critiquing and there were three bites on the front [page, the "wakening scene". i wrote them as bights, the land form and boy did they tear me a ne one for daring to call myself a writer for producing such carp.
No fish were harme din the making o his message.
The critique of that one 3/4 page run into severla pages from all critqiers, some just wrote apage on the first sentence or two. O swore black and blue I ould never submit another part for critique. I accepted i have no technical English ability, what I need is a person to read the story and tell me if it works. If it makes sense, is logical, if it joins together as whole work, if there are gaps in continuity or such like. I want to know if the story is good enuff that people may want to read it thru, basically if this oen is worth sending tot he professional editor and pay 2 grand to have it tidied. I am not a man of means, I live on welfare. Right now I could afford to pay for one edit for 2 grand, I have to pick one of my 4 full books to go for editing and then find a publisher to consdier it for publication.
I digress, i oftn do.
You need to define critique and editor.
Then decide what you are.
Also, I think you need to talk to some editors and see what they say about you rewriting another'[s MS. I have the strong feeling they will say NO!,. in strong terms, all to do with the "voice" bit explained above.
Of course I could be very wrong, i often am. But I was told this and understood it. Maybe someone who knows what they are talking about will tell you the same thing in a polite way and you will come to learn it for yourself.
Best regards
Herman the Merman!