Editors Rewrite Narratives?

I received a shop back because I had missed commenting on one of the "no" questions. When I went back in to fix it, I noticed my entire narrative had been completely re-written.
It still said the same thing but the wording was completely different.
Is that normal?

I don’t get a lot of shops sent back, so Ive never noticed this before. I'm just kind of surprised. The re-written didn’t seem any better to me, and it even had a few typos, imo.

I always thought editors were there to correct grammar, fix typos, and make sure all the required info was there —not to rewrite the entire narrative.
Makes me feel a certain way knowing my words were re-written like that.

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Yes, they do rewrite things, and they often do it very badly. They make it sound like it was written by a young child. They must be trained to make everything very simple. They also remove pertinent information so that the businesses remain unaware of major issues with their stores, such as toilets not being cleaned properly month after month. I guess some companies just want good reports.

@mjt9598 wrote:

Yes, they do rewrite things, and they often do it very badly. They make it sound like it was written by a young child. They must be trained to make everything very simple. They also remove pertinent information so that the businesses remain unaware of major issues with their stores, such as toilets not being cleaned properly month after month. I guess some companies just want good reports.

Yes! Thats what it sounded like a child wrote it. They always ask so many detailed questions and ask for story form so I feel like I put a lot of effort into my narritives.
Why ask for story-style narratives if they’re just going to water it down?
If I knew I could just throw together something basic I wouldn’t put so much time and effort into it.

Do all editors do this, or is it just certain ones?

I applaud your ethics. As an experienced writer and editor with decades in customer service, I also care enough to pay attention to details, instructions, and want to give the client accurate information.

This phenomenon is a major pet peeve of mine, and I’ve seen and experienced everything shared. I’ve also had my correctly punctuated, well-written narratives literally butchered by highlight/deletes of requested detail mid-sentence, leaving blank spaces and chopped off paragraphs to be sent to the client instead.

I’ve also had reports returned/rejected by the client because of these bad edits and had to fight to get paid, so I’ve become very careful to save screen shots of every part of what I submit as proof, adding more time to already under compensated work.

I’m now refusing to work for MSPs that condone it. I will not waste my time fighting for what ends up being optimistically $5 an hour after time and costs.

I’m also reviewing the amount of care and time I put into all of my reports, considering the increasingly disappointing compensation and added time and effort that’s expected.

I won’t submit junk. I’ll just invest my time and skill where it’s actually appreciated.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2025 03:23PM by SBP.

I've certainly seen it happen in some of my reports.

Wonder if clients would be thrilled to know they are often not getting the info they are paying for?

Have synthesizers, will travel...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2025 05:04PM by CoolMusic.

I am a former editor who must say that I was told by my supervisors to "dumb it down" at times and simplify, because often people working for the client need it to be streamlined and to the point. They don't like compound sentences or any words that they might have to look up in the dictionary, LOL. It irked me but I did what I was told.

As a former editor as well, I often had to remove information that was not relevant.

For example, there was a shopper in a very hard to fill area that would include details that not only made them stand out, but were irrelevant. The client does not need to know that the shopper joked with the server about their red hair etc. (That was a real example). Another shopper went BSC about an iced tea (to-go) that had a lemon in it. I received a whole paragraph on that.

What a shopper might think are important details, may be inappropriate or irrelevant to the client. (Sorry for that terrible sentence. I'm not on the clock anymore.)

In general, the client just wants what happened. Very simple sentences. Server offered specials, server gave name, server checked back, etc.

I have worked on some very big projects as a shopper. I often can see what the other shoppers are submitting. I just went with their formats to be consistent. I am not sending over 40 sentences when 10 sentences will suffice.

I have seen this happen often for shops with heavy narratives, especially hotel/casino resort shops. That's just editing; It's what editors do.

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