Simple and effective editing techniques
Photo credit: MichaelMaggs
You’ve finished a draft of a writing project and now it’s time to edit. But the last thing you feel like doing is reading it one more time. It’s time to take a break from your writing project.
Go for a walk, do the dishes, just do something besides stare at the screen. Walk away from it for at least an hour, preferably much longer if possible. I recommend waiting a full 24 hours before returning to a writing project, especially a really tough project like a personal essay or cover letter.
Once you’re rested and ready, print your project. If you don’t like to waste paper, then print it on scrap paper, because the best editing jobs are done on paper. There’s something about reading on a computer screen that causes your eyes to miss mistakes and scroll over typos and problem areas.
Next, pick your favorite editing color, it doesn’t have to be red, any color that’s easy to see between black text. Then with your editing tool in hand, start reading your writing out loud. Now this might sound crazy, but I’m telling this works!
Reading out loud brings all the awkward sentence structures, grammatical errors and missing words to life. This is a really important step for personal essays and cover letters. As you read out loud, mark mistakes with your colored pen or pencil and take detailed notes on problem areas. Then go back to your computer and start editing. Go through this process as many times as necessary until reading out loud goes smoothly. Once you’ve reached this point, you’re probably set. But make sure you run spell check and also have a few trusted friends or family members read it as well.