Whether you are writing a formal email to your boss, finishing a paper for school, or creating an article for a newspaper, everyone is going to edit at some point in their life. To think that I don't need revision, editing rules, and guidelines is ignorant on anyone's part. Here are some helpful hints that I find necessary when going over something and creating the final draft.
- Always do spelling and grammar check. No one likes a horrible speller when you have spell check at the stroke of a key.
- Revision is IMPORTANT. Your rough draft of something should never be the same as your final draft
- Fresh pair of eyes. Personally I get too close to my work and can reread the same thing 12 times and not pick out the mistakes like someone else could if they read my stuff.
- If you don't have someone around to read it, then read it aloud or sleep on it and come back to revise the next day.
- Every word is important so may sure you make every single word worth reading.
- Be professional and clear on what you are writing about. No one likes people who go off on crazy tangents.
- Make sure everything flows together and your ideas come together as one whole.
In the end you will have a final product that will be much more effective and understandable than something you never even looked over or revised in the slightest. Follow these steps and I guarantee that you will have an overall better piece of writing.
