Learning how to edit your own writing begins with understanding that writing and editing are two different jobs.
When you write, your job is to get your thoughts out of your head and onto the page. When you edit, your job is to make those thoughts easier for someone else to understand.
Learning how to edit your own writing is one of the most useful skills a writer can develop. It applies whether you’re writing a book, article, report, sales letter, blog post, email, or even an important note to a customer.
I’ve written professionally for more than six decades, and one lesson has remained constant: good writing is usually rewritten writing. The first draft gets the material onto the page. Editing turns that material into something worth reading.
In my POWER method of writing—Prewrite, Outline, Write, Edit, Review—editing has its own place for a reason. Don’t try to do all five jobs at once.
The first rule of self-editing is simple: if possible, don’t edit immediately after you finish writing.
Put the draft aside.
For a short document, that might mean getting a cup of coffee and returning to it an hour later. For an article, perhaps wait until tomorrow. For a book chapter, longer may be even better.
Why?
Because immediately after writing something, you still know what you intended to say. Your mind tends to fill in missing words, overlook awkward sentences, and forgive unclear explanations.
Time gives you distance. Distance lets you begin to see the words as a reader sees them, rather than as the person who wrote them.
Don’t begin by hunting for commas.
First ask whether the piece works as a whole.
What is it supposed to accomplish? Does it accomplish that purpose? Is the important information there? Is it presented in the right order?
Look at the structure before you look at individual sentences.
A beautifully polished paragraph is still a bad paragraph if it doesn’t belong in the article.
This is also the time to look for missing information. Writers sometimes assume readers know things they don’t know. If a reader needs Point A to understand Point B, make certain you gave them Point A first.
Move paragraphs. Add what is missing. Cut what doesn’t belong.
Only then should you start polishing sentences.
Next, work through the draft sentence by sentence.
Ask yourself: What job is this sentence doing?
A sentence should inform, explain, persuade, entertain, connect ideas, or move the reader forward. If it isn’t doing anything useful, perhaps you don’t need it.
Watch especially for unnecessary words.
Instead of: At this point in time, we are currently considering several different alternatives.
Try: We are considering several alternatives.
Same message. Half the luggage.
Good editing often means removing words rather than adding them.
Look for repeated ideas, unnecessary adjectives, long introductions, qualifications that don’t matter, and phrases that sound important but say very little.
Your reader does not award extra points for tonnage.
I’ve spent much of my writing career explaining things. That has taught me to value clarity over decoration.
Use the simplest word that accurately says what you mean.
Don’t write “utilize” when “use” will do. Don’t write “in the event that” when you mean “if”. Don’t make a reader unpack a sentence only to find the package empty.
This doesn’t mean every sentence must be short or every word simple. It means your language should serve the reader instead of calling attention to the writer.
If a technical term is necessary, use it. If readers may not understand it, explain it.
The goal isn’t to sound simple. The goal is to be understood.
One of the most effective editing tools is free: your own voice.
Read the draft aloud.
Your ears will often catch what your eyes miss. You’ll hear sentences that are too long, awkward rhythms, repeated words, missing words, and passages that simply don’t sound natural.
If you stumble while reading a sentence you wrote, there is a good chance your reader will stumble over it too. Fix the sentence.
Reading aloud is especially useful for conversational writing. If something sounds stiff, pompous, or unnatural when spoken, it probably reads that way too.
Editing isn’t only about style.
Check anything that can be checked.
Names should be spelled correctly. Numbers should agree. Dates should make sense. Links should work. If you capitalize or hyphenate a term one way on page two, don’t spell it differently on page five.
For longer documents, consistency becomes especially important. Make decisions about terminology, capitalization, numbers, abbreviations, and formatting—and then follow those decisions throughout the document.
Readers may never notice consistency. They notice inconsistency.
Editing and proofreading are related, but they are not the same job.
Editing asks: Is this the best way to say it?
Proofreading asks: Did I say it correctly?
Proofreading comes last because there is little point in carefully proofreading a paragraph you later decide to delete.
After the content and sentences are where you want them, make a final pass for spelling, punctuation, grammar, missing words, duplicated words, formatting problems, and typographical errors.
Spell-checkers and grammar tools can help, but don’t surrender your judgment to them. Software doesn’t always understand what you mean. You do.
Writers can revise forever.
Eventually you reach the point where you’re no longer making the piece better. You’re merely making it different.
That’s when you stop.
A useful test is to ask whether your latest change improved clarity, accuracy, usefulness, or readability. If you can’t identify an improvement, consider changing it back.
Professional writing has to be finished.
The objective isn’t perfection. The objective is writing that does its job well.
Before you call the piece finished, ask:
Does the opening tell readers what this is about?
Is the information complete and in a logical order?
Can I remove words without losing meaning?
Are any sentences unnecessarily complicated?
Have I repeated myself?
Are my facts, names, numbers, and links correct?
Does the writing sound natural when read aloud?
Have I proofread only after finishing the editing?
Does every part help the reader?
Am I still improving the piece—or merely changing it?
That isn’t everything an editor can look for, but it catches a remarkable number of problems.
And the more often you edit your own work, the better your first drafts become. You begin recognizing weak habits before they reach the page.
That’s one of the real benefits of learning how to edit your own writing: editing doesn’t merely improve what you’ve already written. It gradually makes you a better writer.
Want more practical ways to improve your writing? Download my free ebook, Working Writer Tips: How to Write Anything Better, Faster, Easier, and receive my free weekly Advanced Writing Tips.
— Dan Ramsey, Working Writer Secrets