Call it editing, revising, or polishing, it means you work on the article until it's the best you can do.
As I wrote earlier, I wrote 18 full drafts of my first article. After that, I revised each a few times. Perhaps 15 on the second article (I no longer remember). By then, I had gained knowledge on how to write. I continued working to improve.
I still write occasional articles and I go through the same steps, but I write fewer drafts. I rarely go beyond the third draft. Even on the third, it really is polishing and not editing.
Here are a few hints on polishing your work.
* Look for awkward or laborious sentences.
* Seek ways to cut unneeded words. Get rid of adjectives and adverbs that don't enhance the writing.
* Sharpen your focus (if needed).
As I wrote earlier, I wrote 18 full drafts of my first article. After that, I revised each a few times. Perhaps 15 on the second article (I no longer remember). By then, I had gained knowledge on how to write. I continued working to improve.
I still write occasional articles and I go through the same steps, but I write fewer drafts. I rarely go beyond the third draft. Even on the third, it really is polishing and not editing.
Here are a few hints on polishing your work.
* Look for awkward or laborious sentences.
* Seek ways to cut unneeded words. Get rid of adjectives and adverbs that don't enhance the writing.
* Sharpen your focus (if needed).
* Look at the number of times you use the same word in your article. If you use a word 12 times, that's too many. Look at a thesaurus for synonyms (but don't use one unless you know what it means).
My article is never good enough
until it's good enough for me to say I can't improve it.
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