Editing your own work is the most difficult thing a writer can do but you have to learn to do it.  Eventually, you may learn to edit on the fly but that is a long time coming, if ever.

Writing is Rewriting

The first edit is yours.  Make the most of it.  Prune it ruthlessly.  Cut it down.  Tighten it up. 

 Review and Revise

You have a right to change your mind and a responsibility to yourself and your readers to change it

 Reviewing and revising your work may involve reworking your composition: adding or cutting material, rearranging the order of paragraphs, etc.

Most first drafts can be cut by 50 percent

Each time you rewrite, try to make it tighter, stronger and more precise. Examine every word you have written. Eliminate every word that is not doing useful work until you have good, tight, clean copy.

 Doubt every word, catch every mistake

What am I trying to say?  Have you said it?  Is it clear to someone encountering the subject for the first time?

Is it doing new work?  Or have you merely repeated the old? 

Can any thought be expressed with more economy?  Try the same sentence without a word.  If the sentence still works without it, the word is not needed. 

Check the negative.  If it doesn't work in the negative, it doesn't belong in the positive.  

 Edit for Comprehension

Your first responsibility is to make sure you mean what you say and say what you mean.

Put yourself in the shoes of the reader

If you don't understand, nobody else will.

 Edit for Content

Don’t expect readers to guess at what you might mean.  You can't expect them to fill in gaps or connect ideas you haven't explicitly connected yourself.

• Do you find it difficult to understand a particular sentence?
• Do you find yourself getting lost in a difficult paragraph?

 Edit for Readability

Read the work all the way through silently.  Don’t stop don’t correct anything.  Check for general readability.  Mark any problems but don’t fix them.  Return to them later.

• Do you stumble over phrases?
• Are the sentences varied enough to avoid monotony?

Your readers must be able to understand you without having to work too hard at it.

 Edit for Flow

Look at the transitions.   Search for transitional words (also, as well as, in addition or any of the thousands of other transitional words or phrases you commonly use).  Make weak transitions more explicit or create new transitions.  

Revising is Recursive.  Go back and do it again.

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