After all the well-meaning advice to picture the reader in your mind as you’re writing, many of us still end up putting down words down geared towards pleasing us instead of our audience. If you’ve partaken in the same habit, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Some people just work more efficiently that way.
However, once you’re past the first writing and into revising your piece, you best put the “reader” hat on. If you don’t, there’s a good chance your work reflects the kind of text that will please you, but not necessarily those who are going to read it.
When it’s time to do revisions, it’s important to switch from a writer-centered focus to a reader-centered one. You’ll have to detach yourself from your writing and look at it with fresh eyes. Different writers have their own styles for accomplishing this. You should try to find your own. A few ideas include:
- Performing the revision one day after writing the first draft.
- Pretending they are reviewing someone else’s work during the revision process.
- Reading backwards, starting from the last paragraph.
- Reading pieces out loud (even recording and listening to them, for some).
- Review your work only after putting it through an English writing software (the changes could be major enough that you end up feeling like you’re reading a different piece).
Reader-centered writing is all about recognizing how the reader will respond to your piece. Done right, you can anticipate any potential pitfalls in your material, particularly those affecting the audience’s overall experience.
Tags: editing, reader-centered, revision, writer-centered
