Writing is a professional skill that can significantly impact your higher education applications, eligibility to get published, work performance, job searches, work-related communication and more. To become an effective writer, it is essential that you learn to edit your own work. Taking the time to review your writing and make corrections and improvements, and refining this process over time will help you establish a more personal tone and voice in your writing.
There are many aspects and nuances to editing. Word choice, tone, word counts and many other considerations come into play when you are engaged in serious writing. Fortunately, today there are many great tools you can use within the software you use every day to help you cover the basics of self-editing and to edit collaboratively with others. Before we discuss some tactical approaches to editing, let’s take a look at some of these editing tools.
Do More Than Spell Check
We recommend that you write your resumes and essays using either MS Word or Google Docs, both of which offer a number of useful editing tools. The most crucial tool is spelling and grammar check, and you should absolutely employ this tool with every draft of a document that you work up to safeguard against making simple mistakes. To keep your emails and other online writing free from spelling and grammar errors, you might consider a browser plugin like Grammarly. Grouped with spell check on the MS Word Review menu tab are Thesaurus and Word Count (under Tools on the Google Doc menu bar). If you find that you’re repeating verbs or adjectives, utilize the thesaurus to try to add some variety or accuracy to your word choice. For a more visually stimulating thesaurus option, try Visual Thesaurus. When you’re writing essays with word limits, Word Count will become a very familiar function.
If you’re working with others or you prefer to track your own progress, some functions help clearly communicate when edits are made and users can leave comments for one another. On the Review tab on MS Word, you’ll find controls for New Comment, Track Changes, Markup Views, and Markup Options. To add a comment, highlight a section – you could highlight several paragraphs or a single letter or punctuation mark – and click New Comment. A box will appear in the right-hand margin and you can leave a comment there. Later, other users (or you) can choose to respond to your comment in a thread, resolve your comment, or delete it. By clicking the Track Changes toggle to On, you’ll activate the function that indicates changes made by different users by changing the font color and calling out edits in the margin. Clicking the button that reads All Markup gives you the option to view the document with or without changes and comments. Markup Options allows you to select which edits you want called out. To accept or reject changes and clean up your document view, right-click to accept or reject changes or use the buttons in the menu. On Google Docs, the Suggesting function in the pencil menu tracks changes using strikethrough and colors, and the add comment icon is towards the middle of the menu.
Editing for Clarity & Focus
In addition to cleaning up mistakes and improving word choice, editing should refine your writing in ways that emphasize key points and create a logical thread or storyline. One way to write in a way that flows from point to point is to start your writing process with two activities that use a kind of editing mindset. The first is to closely consider your writing task and begin to focus on the key concepts and words you want to highlight. When faced with an essay question, highlight the key words in the question to ensure that you make an effort to clearly answer each part of the question. A second suggestion for longer, structured writing, is to write an outline before you begin. This practice can alleviate writer’s block and act as a writing guide. After you’ve written a draft, go back and review the question and your outline against your writing to be sure that you have achieved your writing goal (answered the question) and covered all the points you intended to.
Working with Word Limits
Essay questions commonly have word limits that necessitate a structured, concise approach if one is to maximize expression and description within the allotted space. Here again, having an outline can come in handy because it will help prioritize your talking points and supporting material. For longer essay answers, you might have the liberty to take a narrative approach and spend time sharing personal anecdotes and stories, but essays of 500 words or fewer will almost certainly require more economical writing and editing.
A good strategy for your first draft is to write out all of your ideas without fear of going over your word count (within reason – a 1,000 word first draft for a 300 word essay means you haven’t planned your approach well). Let’s say you’ve written 450 words for your 300 word essay. You now need to take an editing approach to shrewdly cut any minor points that don’t explicitly support or add to your answer. In addition to removing pieces of information, here are a couple of other tips for reducing words:
- Eliminate list words and repetition – remember that while this structure might be common in some languages, in English it’s best to choose one accurate word
- Use confident, declarative language – get rid of phrases like “I would like”, “I think that” or “I hope to” as well as most should/would/could statements
- Be wary of superlative adjectives, choose the most descriptive term and keep it simple; for example, it’s adequate to say that you worked on “an important project,” there’s no need to say you worked on “an extremely important project”
- Use everyday language rather than technical terms where possible
- Common abbreviations, such as AI for artificial intelligence or ASU rather than Arizona State University, can help in tight spots
[Conclusion]
Editing may be the most valuable step in your writing process. Not only is it a safety net for your writing, it is an opportunity to practice critical thinking and refine your own work. It is the stage where you can shape your story with precision and thoughtful word choice. Most importantly, it is a chance to make sure that you are expressing yourself and your stories in a voice that is truly your own.
If you’re preparing your applications and seeking professional support for your editing, you can consider our editing options by clicking here.