How to edit your writing

Use the simple Fix-Improve method to give your writing a professional edge.

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How to edit your writing

Top tips for editing your work

1. Beware of mixing up possessives and contractions. Even if you know the difference between it’s (the contraction) and its(possessive), your fingers may not. Using the “Find” function of your word processor, run a search just for apostrophe marks to help locate and catch errors.
    
2. Revising, drafting, and editing are closely related. In fact, most writers do not distinguish the three as they work. They do not simply draft once, revise once, and edit once in that order. They move back and forth among these processes frequently. 
    
3. Check out York University's short tutorial on reviewing and revising

• Essay editing - strategies for editing such as:
  • taking a strategic approach to editing your essay
  • assessing the effectiveness of the introduction, body and conclusion of your paper
  • identifying and fixing common problems in language use, citation formatting, grammar and punctuation

Short proofreading checklist

Enhance your learning

This video describes the writing process involved in creating a good blog (or other writing endeavors, such as an essay).

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Writing process animation