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where you might not be making those big bucks, professional editing is not always feasible or practical. That's when self editing becomes important. Self editing is almost as important, and sometimes more important, than the writing that you do.

When people read your writing, how well written, grammatically correct, coherent and interesting your writing is will make a difference in how seriously readers take your writing. If your copy is riddled with errors, spelling issues, typos and the like, some reader will not see past those errors to even know if your information is worth reading. Others may read past the errors, but you, as a knowledgeable source of information, lose credibility when you don't take the time to perfect your copy.

Self editing is not all that hard. Let's look at some easy ways to self edit:

1. Read your copy out loud, preferably
to another person. You'll be amazed how many errors you can find from doing this!

2. Have another person read your writing. It helps to have someone other than the writer read the copy, because they will see errors the writer fills in because they knew what they meant.

3. Find another writer who you can exchange proofreading with, where you will read one of their articles and check for errors for every articles of yours they read. Lots of writers have proofreading buddies.

4. Find a writers forum or website that has a critiques and feedback section that is password protected and ask the members to proof your copy prior to submission.

5. Read your content backward! One sentence at a time, from the last sentence to the first-reading this way makes it easier to see an error, because you're not 'in the flow' of reading it the way you intended to write it.

As you can see, editing doesn't have to cost a fortune, and while it make take a little bit of extra time to edit your copy, you'll appear a better writer, present a better image and invite repeat readers and build that all important readership if you take the time to edit your copy before putting it out for the world to read.

Learn more about this author, Michelle L Devon.
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