Self Editing tips/tricks?

Question

I write a daily piece and have been doing so for over 8 years. I think my writing has gotten better, but I still find mistakes at times, or more likely, my readers find mistakes.Does anyone have good tricks for self-editing? Any tools? I spell check and use Word for grammar checking, but it doesn't seem to work so well and the pace of writing makes it hard to use anyone for editing on a regular basis.

Answer 1

Read your work out loud or have the computer read it out loud to you. It will help you catch more typos that you usually don't see (because your brain may fill in a missing word or something misspelled when you read it in your head) and it will help you realize when a sentence you thought was clear is not grammatically correct, is unclear, etc. This has helped me a lot and I always try read my work out loud before submitting!

Answer 2

Self-editing is always hard, but daily writing should have made it a little easier. I too sometimes make typos, but I guess you may mean something like spelling (which you say you check), or grammar (which Word doesn't really do a very good job with). Of course writing quickly to a daily deadline adds pressure to your composing process. So it depends on the kind of mistakes you are referring to. Sentence style? Vocabulary choice? Clarity? Each one is slightly different. Perhaps you would consider some short-term tutoring to verify the kinds of mistakes you think you are making, and tips from a writing teacher on how to correct them. I would say stylistic choices are the hardest as they are very subjective and personal. How do you sound? or come across? What do you want to sound like? This relates to your personal style as a writer.