Everyone who writes, needs an editor. Oftentimes, we don’t have that luxury. So, here are some helpful tips on editing your own work.

Read your copy out loud.

I know it sounds really simple. And, it is.

This is one of the most effective ways to figure out whether your copy works. Often when you’re reading silently, you’re just skimming. This makes it really easy to miss bad grammar or misspelled words.

Reading it out loud, forces you to take a fresh look at your text. If it doesn’t roll off the tongue or you jumble up words, that means it’s time to rewrite it.

Spell Checking Tools

Use one. Any which one. There isn’t a perfect spell check out there, human or machine. Honestly, even if you have 30 people reviewing your copy,  go ahead and use the spell check.

It’s easy to miss a word, in a body of copy, with an extra letter (e.g.,  shippping or shellls).

Especially with multiple people reviewing it, a typo can sneak into your copy.

When using a spell checking tool, you’ll be surprised at what you missed.

Search Tool

Most browsers and applications have a shortcut which lets you search within your text. Typically, for PC  and MAC users, the key commands are ctrl-f  and command-f, respectively.

This tool is great especially if there have been some last-minute changes. For instance, you have copy in which the percentage rate for some figure has gone up from 4% to 5%. If there are only two instances of this change, it should be easy enough to correct.

However, if there are 15 instances, this becomes an invaluable tool.