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Revising Your Drafts

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Writing professional documents with minimal grammar errors will come with practice. Repeated grammar mistakes tend to occur because you have your thoughts about your writing contained within your mind. Anything you can think of to get your self out of your mind will help. Some effective techniques for revision include: 

  • Read your sentences out loud
  • Read your work to someone else.
  • Record yourself reading and listen to the playback. This method often helps with improving style and content as well as grammar.
  • Have someone else read your work to you. Often he or she will notice errors your mind has blocked out.
  • Read a draft once to yourself immediately prior to sleep. In the morning, return to your document and read it again. Your subconscious will have identified problems while you slept, and you may notice changes you need to make.
  • Double-space your document. This will make it easier to read and spot mistakes.
  • Print out your draft and read it in a different environment than where you wrote it. Seeing your writing printed on a page helps your mind achieve a different perspective. Reading in a different atmosphere can also give you new ideas and refine your content or style.
  • If you have the luxury, complete drafts long before a deadline. Set the work aside for anywhere from one to thirty days and review it later. By doing this, you can detach from your work, making it easier to objectively examine.
  • Remember, the spellchecker and grammar checker are great tools. But they are exactly that—tools. Don’t let them become crutches.


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