Editing Your Writing

One of the benefits of hiring an editor is in the reality that they are looking at your work with new eyes. You can mimic this with these few steps:

TAKE A BREAK AND LET IT BAKE

Let it sit for a few hours or a couple days before returning to it.

To be candid, a few hours in all probability isn’t going to be enough time for your eyes to be reviewing it with a renewed outlook, but for sure, a couple of days can create a enormous difference.

READ YOUR STORY OUT LOUD

Hearing the rhythm of the words will allow your ears to find errors that your eyes may miss

PRINT IT OUT

Editing on paper is easier than editing on a screen. Errors will jump out at you much more, and your eyes won’t be tempted to skim the page as quickly as they will on the screen.

If you must edit on the screen, change the font and size. It will be able to help you catch any glaring errors.

READ IT BACKWARDS

This is an effective way to check for typos—if you read backwards, from the end to the beginning, reading one word at a time, you’ll look closely at each word individually. You’re more easily able to catch misspelled words this way.

READ YOUR WORK AT LEAST THREE TIMES

Write your entire article out in full. Then reread it and fill in any gaps or holes that you see, and polish up awkward sentences. Then read it at least one more time for a final proofread and grammar check.