Quick & Easy Self-Editing Tips
By Alison Nissen @RevelCoach
When I was a young dyslexic, spelling tests haunted me. With the advent of programs such as Grammarly and GrammarCheck, my stress of misspelled words has decreased 10fold. While these programs don’t catch all my errors, I’m much closer to an A on a 6th-grade spelling test.
Here are some Quick & Easy Self-Editing Tips:
1. Employ some form of grammar/spelling checker. Spell check is the greatest invention since sliced bread. You can quote me on that.
2. Read your work out loud. Listen to your words. Many mistakes are caught this way. Afraid others will hear you? Go to the bathroom, turn on the shower, whisper. It still counts.
3. Ask for another set of eyes. Hey, nobody’s perfect.
4. Let it breathe. Overnight. Or a fortnight if possible. Really, wine and words are so similar. You can quote me on that, too.
5. Use words you can define, not ones you must look up. If you can’t pronounce it, don’t use it. That’s just silly.