Test your editorial skills

The Writing Magazine has provided three sentences that would benefit from 'some careful use of a red editing pen.' How would you re-write them?

1. Although she was a comparative newcomer to the company, Rose had somehow wrestled control of the editorial department from the girl who had been in charge for years.

2. Long before he started work on his non-fiction book, Clive aimed to martial all his facts and reference sources into a manageable order.

3. Robert had not completed any of the work he needed to do in preparation for the meeting, so he quickly invented an entirely fictional cold and excused himself on the grounds of illness.