Never turn in a piece without editing it. It’s been said many times, many ways and it remains just as true. If you find the whole process too much work, try being smart about it. It won’t just save you time, it should help you accomplish things much faster.
Step back. Editing immediately after writing your draft is the worst thing you can do. Writing demands closeness and you’ll need to sever that somehow by distancing yourself a little. The distance also lets ideas simmer in your subconscious mind – an invaluable side-effect.
Change the format. If you wrote your article in Word, try reading it as an HTML file. Or read it aloud. Or read it as a hardcopy. Changing the format can change the way you take to the text, often allowing you to uncover mistakes you did not previously catch.
Spend your time wisely. Allot more time to the areas of the text that make the most impact. This means the lead, the conclusion and the main idea. Tweaking one of these can sometimes be enough to see the piece fall into place.
Use the proper tools. Tools will make your life easier. Why check for syntax problems when you can launch a powerful grammar software that will do it at ten times the speed (probably more)? Style issues? Get a style checker that will make your text adhere to your desired stylebooks.
Don’t be afraid to throw everything away. It may not be the smartest idea around, but it begs telling nonetheless. While planning and outlines are crucial to writing, you need to be brave enough to redo your structure when it is called for. It hurts bad, but some instances will paint it as the most viable solution.
