{"id":180,"date":"2015-07-23T07:20:28","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T07:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/97.74.134.56\/?p=180"},"modified":"2015-08-04T05:49:47","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T05:49:47","slug":"7-tips-for-editing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/7-tips-for-editing\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Tips for Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"

7 Tips for Editing<\/span><\/h1>\n

How do you make sure you\u2019re writing right? Crafting prose is mostly a matter of using the right words for the job. Here are some steps to help you achieve that goal.<\/p>\n

1. Look up the definition of an unfamiliar word and be sure you understand the meaning before you use it.<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s easy to deploy a word you\u2019ve just read or heard, mistakenly believing you understand its definition or its connotation, only to confuse or accidentally mislead your readers. Always double-check a term you\u2019ve never used before. (Consider doing the same with words you\u2019ve used before and think you know.)<\/p>\n

2. Search a thesaurus or a synonym finder for the precise meaning, taking care to notice the different connotations of similar words.<\/strong>
\nFlag stock words and phrases, and thumb or click through a print or online resource to select a more exact or accurate synonym. But be alert to seemingly similar words with distinct senses.<\/p>\n

3. Keep your writing clear and coherent, and avoid pretentious or overly formal language.<\/strong>
\nWrite to communicate, not to impress. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. Don\u2019t dumb down, but don\u2019t let your writing get in the way of your message. There\u2019s a fine line between elegance and pomposity.<\/p>\n

4. Select the strongest nouns and verbs before you select adjectives and adverbs.<\/strong>
\nWords that modify nouns and verbs can enhance clarity of thought and vividness of imagery, but if they upstage the words they\u2019re supposed to support, strengthen the actor and action words. When you do so, an adjective or adverb may no longer be necessary.<\/p>\n

5. Seek opportunities to use repetition for rhetorical effect while, at the same time, you watch for careless redundancy.<\/strong>
\nTake care that you don\u2019t repeat yourself unless you do so to emphasize your point.<\/p>\n

6. Read your draft aloud to help you refine grammar and usage. If something doesn\u2019t sound right to you, it probably doesn\u2019t read right to your audience, either.<\/strong>
\nRecitation of your writing is time consuming, but that\u2019s how you find the awkward wording or phrasing you didn\u2019t stumble over in your silent review.<\/p>\n

7. Ask someone else to read your writing and critique it.<\/strong>
\nPeople you draft to read your draft need not offer solutions to problems of grammar, usage, organization, and logic; they can simply highlight problematic words, phrases, sentences, and passages, and offer more detail if necessary while leaving the problem solving to you.<\/p>\n

This last step isn\u2019t practical for every writing task or assignment, but if a piece of prose is important enough to you, and you have a reliable, word-savvy person on hand, ask to borrow their eyes and the brain attached to them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7 Tips for Editing How do you make sure you\u2019re writing right? Crafting prose is mostly a matter of using the right words for the job. Here are some steps to help you achieve that goal. 1. Look up the definition of an unfamiliar word and be sure you understand the meaning before you use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-writing-tips"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/tips-for-editing.jpg?fit=800%2C521&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"Writing Geeks","author_link":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/author\/writinggeeks\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/tips-for-editing.jpg?fit=800%2C521&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6uhmH-2U","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writinggeeks.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}