Learning how to write is uniquely challenging. Writing requires the mastery and synchronized use of the complex array of language, vocabulary, and spelling skills and the ability to organize and convey ideas. Indeed, the details of writing make it one of the highest forms of human expression.
However, to become a great writer you need to first learn how to edit your work. Because when you are in the flow of writing your first draft you are just churning the words. Editing is the last process of your writing and that makes your writing shine. This is the reason that self-editing is a worthy skill one should have.
Most people think it’s better to hire dissertation writers UK at some point and you should, but first edit your work on your own. This idea is good most of the time because editors don’t have so much time to read their own text. Your work will definitely be published if you edit it by yourself because no one can better edit than you.
Following are the 10 tips to become an expert editor.
1. Read backward
It doesn’t mean to go entirely backward, your words need to make sense. You need to take a sentence from a paper at once. This will ensure you look at the words of the sentence in order to catch mistakes that you overlooked. This trick will be great for you if you are prone to sentence fragments.
2. Ten percent rule by Stephen King’s
No one can give great advice on editing except Stephen King, the greatest author of all time. In Stephen King’s book on writing, he emphasizes the importance of the “ten percent rule”. In this book, he recommends deleting 10% text of the first draft while self-editing. This means if your first draft is around 1000 words then you have to cut off 100 words. Vladimir Nabokov once said, “Every word I have written. My pencil outlasts their erasers”.
This rule is about unnecessary words. Hence, good writing only has necessary words so cutting 10 % of the first draft will work well.
3. Keep it in your mind that you are an expert writer
Just keep in your mind that you are an expert in writing. Never underestimate yourself. Do not get annoyed regarding the writing. People often get frustrated especially in their dissertation. If you get stuck in writing a dissertation at any stage, immediately contact the best dissertation editing service writer to avail yourself of the best assistance. By availing of the best dissertation assistance, everyone can easily write and submit top-of-the-top dissertation reports for grading to their professors.
4. Edit Your Task Effectively with Handy Tools
You can always edit your text after you are finished writing the first draft. For instance, you keep getting new ideas once you start reading them from start to finish again. This is the right way to keep editing the content as much as you like. Adding new ideas into it or replacing the previous content because it didn’t make sense, it’s just all about the interest you take.
Furthermore, if you are having trouble editing the essay after completing your draft, you can always look out for the handy tools that are created for any type of writing. One of the well-known tools is the Hemingway Editor. It scans your text and points out the issues of it making it easier for you to edit your documents without getting any assistance from an expert.
5. Edit beginning of the work
It is the weakest and most important point of every writer because if it is done badly, the readers will not read the rest of the content. Revise your first paragraph and make every word count. Be concise and interesting. This will prove the hook for your readers.
6. Use active voice
While editing if you catch too many was and where then you may know that something is going wrong in your writing. Using the passive voice in the text makes your text weak and indicates a sign of inexperience. Eliminate that.
If you see something like, someone did this to this or anything similar to it then immediately replace it with a more active sentence. This will give your story the next level with some freshness.
7. Correct grammatical and spelling mistakes
While writing the first draft you don’t need to worry about it. However, it is something you need to remove while editing. If your content has a lot of grammatical and spelling mistakes then you are known as someone who is not serious. Following are some tools that will make your job of editing and proofreading easier.
● Ginger and Grammarly
These two are the best editing tools that you can use at any time in order to achieve a professional level of editing. They will provide anything related to the editing that you must need.
● GrammarBook.com and British council quick grammar
These are free grammar resources. If you are feeling something wrong in your text then go visit these sites.
● Paper rater and proofreading tool
These tools really give you peace of mind. Regarding, if you want to catch mistakes that you have made in the writing. They are basically a proofreading tool and detect the copied text.
8. Read aloud
You can miss many things while simply reading your work. You need to read every bit of the content aloud. This will make you able to see what works and what doesn’t. Even though this will save half of your time in editing. By following this method, even a tiny spelling can’t escape.
9. Use the word “said” and avoid other dialogue tags
People can’t yawn, smile and snore the words they say. Simply replace the words by said and in some cases by asked. Make your writing strong so you don’t need to explain your character’s voice. Your writing game will be strong if you do so.
10. Take a rest before you edit
After finishing writing the first draft, take a rest for some time. Put your draft on your desk for one to two days and even longer if you can afford it. By doing so this method you are able to eliminate more things without being biased.
Conclusion
Editing has never been an easy job. It requires lots of attention and hard work. However, self-editing is an important feature of writing a great document. You are the person who knows well about what suits best for your writing and what is not. Take some time and be careful while editing and enjoy your work.