How to Edit, Proofread, and Revise Your Work

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HOW to EDIT, PROOFREAD and REVISE YOUR WORK

Whatever it is that you write, whether it’s an academic dissertation, a short story, or a novel, it is essential to check, revise, and edit the work before submission. Take a break from writing and use it for proofreading and revising.
This short hiatus in writing can give you a fresher outlook and helps you pay more attention to details so you can polish your craft.
With constant editing, you would be more aware of your mistakes and become watchful of them in the future. Editing and revising helps in the assessment of drafts, in reorganizing thoughts, and in clarifying points.


When editing, you have to see if your main point has been emphasized. Your work has to have a clear objective and all the events and chapters lead in that direction. This can be easier to do if you are able to identify with your purpose and your target readers.
Once you have done that, you have to look for items in your work that support your goal. If you think your work lacks depth when it comes to story structure, try adding a few more events.
If it seems that there are too many items supporting your objective, try skimming them by saving only the good pieces. This will make your story more readable and easier to understand.


Next stop – language.
You have to do a little de-cluttering by removing unclear and confusing ideas from your story. You can do this by reading your work out loud. If there are awkward pauses and muddled ideas, better straighten them out. Delete irrelevant, vague, and misused words and phrases.





At this point, you also have to go through the entire composition with a fine-toothed comb and get rid of grammar slip-ups and inaccuracies, as well as spelling and punctuation.
Some writers are able to do this effectively by making the switch from being a writer to a reader. All you have to do is detach yourself from what you have written and think of what you are doing as criticizing someone else’s composition.
If you assess your paper objectively, you would be able to pinpoint the lapses in your writing. You would be able to edit it impartially to make it better.


Once you have been writing for a while, and perhaps it will happen to you while you are in the middle of revising your manuscript, you will understand that the actual ‘craft’ of writing lies with the revision.
Your book, if you think about it, is only as good as your ability to revise it (and your willingness to revise it). Some prefer to take their rough draft and hand it out to ‘readers’ for some feedback. This is not a bad idea, but it can also lead you astray, even bruising your feelings if the feedback you receive isn’t particularly helpful or flattering.


The best types of revision happen between author and manuscript a number of times before engaging and involving anyone else. When you do involve someone else, make sure that they are trusted individuals who will be honest, but not brutally so (even if you ‘claim’ that’s what you want).
Revision involves truly fleshing out the ideas that you put on paper. It allows you to go back in and add more detail, clarify those points that seem murky now that you’re looking back over them, and allows you to ‘play’ a bit with the quirks and habits of your characters.
This happened to the screenwriters for the Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean movie and the small monkey that was a companion to Captain Barbossa.
Neither the monkey, nor the parrot were originally part of the first draft.