Tips for editing your own documents
By way of The (New) Legal Writer blog, two ways to do a better job of editing your own writing:
- Step away from the document. Give yourself a bit of a break from looking at it. When you come back, with fresh eyes, you’ll see things that you didn’t notice before.
- If you’re going to review the document on paper, print it in a different font. I’m with Ray on this one: I’ve never used this trick, so I’m going to give it a try the next time I’m reviewing one of my own pieces. I’ll let you know how it works.
Posted on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 at 03:44PM
by
Roy Jacobsen
in Good advice from here and there
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2 Comments
Roy Jacobsen
in Good advice from here and there
|
2 Comments
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Reader Comments (2)
Read sentences backward. This doesn't necessarily catch syntax errors, but it's a bang up way to catch typos.
That does work well for typos. By working backwards, you're forcing yourself to look at each word individually, and you don't fall into the trap of "reading what it's supposed to say." It's sort of like that trick with the sign that says:
PARIS IN THE
THE SPRING
Of course, "the" is in there twice, but your brain "knows" it's supposed to say "PARIS IN THE SPRING," so that's what you think it says.