Q:

What is the proper procedure for us laypeople to edit an answer?

How do I get rid of adware from Search Conduit/White Smoke?
A few days ago, I had this question answered with the assistance of another user. His answer did not entirely solve my problem, however. There were still a couple of things I had to figure out on my own to finally solve my issue.  In the interest of leaving a complete answer behind for future users, I added a few things to the guy's answer before accepting it.
The thing is, I'm told that my edits are sitting in a queue, waiting to be accepted. Here are my concerns:

Are my edits being overlooked because I already accepted an
(incomplete) answer?
Should I simply have posted my own answer to
my question with the info from his answer and mine added together?
What if my changes never get accepted? The accepted answer to my
question will forever be an incomplete one

A:

It depends on how substantial your adjustments to the post are. Regular editing guidelines apply, even if it's an answer to your own question.
For your information, 3 people reviewed your edit. 1 person approved it, the other two rejected it for the following reasons:

This edit is incorrect or an attempt to reply to or comment on the existing post.
Should probably be its own answer rather than such a radical change to this one.

Now, to your questions.

No, your edits are never overlooked. Every edit is reviewed. If the context of the question is taken into account during the review process is dependent upon the reviewer.
Maybe. If your addition is more "valuable" than the initial answer, then you should post your own answer. If you're just adding details or you're polishing the answer, then you should edit.
Correct, this is the "risk" you take when editing another answer.

p.s. Please don't introduce changes to your post by prefixing them with "EDIT". If someone wants to review the chronological order of changes to the post, they can review the edit history.

