Writing and Modifying Polished Prose


Writing and Modifying Polished Prose

Writing and modifying go hand in hand!

Writing leaves an impression. Readers will come away out of your work feeling knowledgeable, entertained, impressed, even moved.

Or will they?

Once I was in highschool and through my early school days, I wrote papers and turned them in with out giving them a lot as a second look — no revisions or rewriting and no proofreading or modifying. My papers usually got here again marked up, and the markings virtually all the time identified grammar, spelling, and punctuation guidelines that I already knew – however as a result of I hadn’t bothered to edit my work, I’d by accident damaged the principles and turned in an unpolished piece of writing that was peppered with typos.

Writing and modifying are important steps in any venture, however too usually, we skimp on modifying and find yourself with unpolished prose.

The Significance of Modifying

In time, I discovered the worth of revising my work, however it was a lesson that didn’t arrive within the type of essays hatched with crimson markups. I discovered the worth of modifying as a reader.

The primary time I caught a typo in a novel, I felt smug. I assumed myself fairly good to have discovered a mistake that the writer had missed. Later, once I understood that every novel is reviewed by a number of editors, I felt much more smug once I’d discover errors in books or articles. Not solely had the author missed the error, the editors had missed it too!

I additionally observed that every error was a pace bump, which interrupted the stream of my studying. I’d be having fun with the story, and unexpectedly, a blatant misspelling or poorly structured sentence would throw me off track, and I’d be yanked out of the story.

That was sufficient for me to develop a cautious observe of modifying the whole lot I wrote. When folks learn my work, I don’t need them to pause to ponder the principles of grammar. I would like the studying to stream easily and completely uninterrupted. So writing and modifying now go hand in hand.

The Absence of Modifying

I’ve discovered that on the earth of running a blog, modifying is sorely missing – and it’s simple to inform when a blogger doesn’t perceive the principles of correct English or is just being careless. In some circumstances, the work comprises data and concepts that may’t be obtained elsewhere, so the worth of the content material overrides the need of good grammar. In different circumstances, the fabric is so riveting and entertaining, minor errors are simply forgiven.

Some readers will ignore grammatical hiccups or complicated verbiage. Others received’t discover them in any respect. However there’ll all the time be those that are so utterly turned off by an unpolished piece of labor that they’ll merely cease studying no matter you publish. Is {that a} harsh response on the reader’s half? Possibly. But when your work is so riddled with errors that it’s troublesome to learn, then why ought to anybody waste their time?

As writers (and notably for bloggers who produce tons of written materials on any given day, week, or month) it’s almost unimaginable to rent an expert editor to examine the whole lot we put out in public. Regardless of how fastidiously we proofread and edit, chances are high that a couple of typos will slip by way of over time. However for those who aren’t sharpening your work in any respect, and your writing is encumbered with errors, you’re sending readers a message that you just don’t care very a lot about your work or the impression that it leaves.

Your Writing and Modifying Habits

I’ll go away you with a couple of questions which you could ask your self about your individual writing and modifying habits. Be happy to share your responses within the feedback part or just share your emotions about writing and modifying (or lack thereof).

  • Do you edit every bit of writing that you just submit, share, or publish?
  • What number of instances do you proofread an editorial?
  • How cautious is your writing and modifying course of? Do you do a fast scan or a deep evaluation? Do you pause to edit sentences as you’re writing them, or do you wait and end a draft earlier than modifying it?

Keep in mind, modifying is without doubt one of the keys to higher writing, so be sure you incorporate it into your writing course of.

You probably have any writing and modifying tricks to share, be happy to submit them within the feedback.

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