10 Ways to Self-Edit Your Articles Before You Submit Them So That You Get More Readership

By Naweko N San-joyz

Do you just cringe when you discover that after having submitted your work to tens of article directories that your writing looks at though you wrote while intoxicated? It's embarrassing. But, you can avoid some of the most common article writing mistakes with this 10-step article review process.

Since most of us have access to a spelling and grammar software, and use it, the heart of your editing needs to focus on the subtle aspects of writing that these correction programs commonly miss.

For example, look out for words that are easy to confuse mentally.

Let me explain. When you write, you know what you want to say. However, sometimes that is not exactly what you type. Plus, when you edit your writing, the voice in your head may brush over an incorrect word simply because it already knows what your writing says.

To illustrate, take the words "and" and "an". You may write a sentence that reads:

"The reckless politician spouted out and inaccurate statistic and the reporters didn't even question his sources."

The "and" in front of "inaccurate" should be "an", but the spelling and grammar program did not catch this error. And upon proof-reading, you could miss this too because your eyes will see "an", and tell your brain "an" and so you will mistakingly think that the sentence is correct.

Here's a list of words that are easy to mistype and are not typically corrected by your grammar programs. So when editing your work, pay attention to these words:

1. "And" and "An"

2. "Want and "Won't"

3. "Their" and "There"

4. "You" and "Your"

5. "Since" and "Sense"

6. "Its" and "It's"

7. Review your writing from a month ago

One of the best ways to improve your writing--and to become more aware of the grammatical errors you are most likely to pen-- is to re-edit work you published a month ago. Print three of your old articles. Now edit these articles with a red pen. Note the types of grammatical mistakes that you made most frequently. The next time you edit your articles, be aware of the types of writing mistakes you are most prone to and look for these in your work.

8. Read your article aloud at a slow pace

After you've written your article, read it aloud. But read each word deliberately. I say "deliberately" because as you read, your brain has already recorded what it expects you to say, so your brain will read from memory, not from the reality of what is on the paper. Slowing yourself down a little increases the chances of you actually seeing errors on paper.

9. Read your article in reverse order

To play again on the theme of tricking your brain into seeing your article with new eyes, read your article from the last paragraph to the first. This tip will help you spot those less obvious errors.

10. Read your article in a different font

Another way to make your eyes and brain see the article with "fresh" eyes is to change the font of your article. For instance, if you wrote the article in Times New Roman, change the font to something completely different like Mistral or Pristina. Change the font size as well if needed.

11. Bonus tip: Read grammar books

Whenever I feel that my writing is getting so bad that I hardly want to read it myself, I read a grammar book. Grammar books today are not boring like the ones from sixth-grade English class. Today books have attitude, practicality and actually make you want to write better. So go to your library or local book store and read a grammar book to keep your writing style crisp and enjoyable for both you and your readers.

That is it. As they (editors) say, "The key to good writing is good re-writing". Now go and give the reading world something worthwhile and not wasteful and I am, I mean, I'll try and do the same.

Naweko San-Joyz helps people look better. You can get started by using her free weight loss tool located at http://www.noixia.com/blog

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