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Improve Your Editing Skills

Editing is hard at times. Sometimes you literally cannot see the wood for the trees.

Have you ever written something that you think is fine, an email or whatever, then looked at it a couple of days later and realised there are mistakes in it? It is easily done. The same applies with editing. Sometimes if we are in a rush, or tired, or not really concentrating, it is easy to miss errors in what we have written.

So, some tips –

  • Sit down to do your editing without distraction, e.g. without your phone or email or TV on etc.
  • Avoid a time when you might get distracted. For example, don’t start editing when you know you don’t have much time or you might get a visitor or someone come home etc.
  • Make sure you have the time you need.
  • Read a whole paragraph or page to get a flavour of what it is about before you start.
  • Try reading the page aloud at first.  This can feel silly, but by reading aloud, it can actually help you to see where mistakes are.
  • Do a scan of the text first, a quick read of a paragraph can sometimes make things jump out at you.
  • Follow this up with a more strict scan, going over word for word what is in the document.
  • Go through the whole section/document once. Then leave it for a few minutes, or longer. Then go back and look again.

Would you like to improve your editing skills?

ACS offer a range of courses from beginner through to advanced level editing courses. Find out more by looking at our selection of Writing and Journalism courses.

Or, contact us for more information.

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