Image Courtesy: Photo by Bram Naus on Unsplash

How to Edit an Article like a Pro...

Live2Inspire
3 min readMay 5, 2018

--

The only writer to whom you should compare yourself is the writer you were yesterday. — David Sehlosser

You got an idea, and you start writing. After expressing your thoughts, you are all set to publish your first draft.

But, is this precisely what you want to publish?

Not every writer comes out with the best article in the first attempt. Writers spend hours to get the ideas, and then come up with their first draft.

But, the important thing here is to EDIT the article, rather than hitting the PUBLISH button instantly after drafting.

Editing an article requires lot more effort than drafting it. When you re-write, you prepare a final version of your article.

A few tips to help you edit your article like a Pro...

Define your Goals

When editing an article, be very specific to describe the goal behind the topic you choose to express. Ask yourself, the objective of writing the article and check if your words are clearly defining your goals or not.

Main Frame

The main frame of the article includes the INTRO part which contains the objective of the article, that is the introduction to the topic.

Then comes the BODY of the article which includes the central part of your article. The message you want to give and the solutions you provide through your article.

Lastly, comes the CONCLUSION part of the article which includes your message for your readers. It lets you conclude your thoughts/ recommendations on an excellent short note.

Don’t be Repetitive

Avoid the repetition of words, rather than using the same word try to use different synonyms. Express different thought in each paragraph rather than writing /expressing same ideas in a different manner.

Being repetitive with your words or ideas doesn’t make your article strong. Instead, it makes them look more unconvincing.

Spark it up with Quotes, Images

Quotes, Images, GIFs, makes the article look more interactive to the readers. But, overdosing these might degrade the quality of your article.

Try to instill at most two quotes and 1-2 images in your article. Avoid adding these in the body part of your article, as this may disrupt the reader from concentrating on your article. Use it in either the introduction part or the conclusion part to make it more interesting.

Use Grammarly

There are many common grammar issues which come in writing. There may be an issue related to tenses, punctuation, incorrect words or anything. Apps like Grammarly helps writers to check for any grammar related mistakes in their article.

Last Minute Corrections

After completing all the possible editing work read your article and check if any further improvements are required.

  • Check if the quotes and images are relevant to your writing.
  • Check if all the paragraphs are going smoothly in an order.
  • Check if the introduction part of your article or the objective of your article is adequately described properly and, is the conclusion part relevant to the objective.

Hit Publish

Once you are done with all your editing wor, and you read the article after corrections, just hit the Publish Button.

THANKS FOR READING! Please help in spreading this message by recommending this post and feel free to share your views in the responses below.

ProWritingAid is a powerful suite of over 20 different writing and editing tools. Copy your draft into their online editor and check grammar, sentence flow, overused words, and more. Try it for free!

Official Sponsor of The Writing Cooperative

--

--

Everything on Live2Inspire aims to get readers refreshing ideas to Motivate and Inspire them. Follow: https://www.live2inspire.in/