- Make sure to read your work aloud and to do so at a very slow pace
- Read the same work vigilantly to catch errors and do so from front to back, and then back to front
- While you read your work, record your voice (speak as slowly as you have the patience for that out-of-your-norm-pace), and then listen to the small sections of what you have recorded
- The first time, listen to details that sound out of order (specifically, how you have structured your sentences, your word choice, and phrasing)
- The second time, read the corresponding text aloud
- Then, record your voice once again with the new round of reading out of your text
- Write down what your selected work is about (a synopsis, if you so choose to label it as)
- Then create questions about the content of your work as a whole but write them at the beginning of each section
- Compare / Contrast against the fact if your text answers your own questions
- Make sure all your questions are answered
Summary
Self-editing, even if it is only to copy edit or proofread, is a process that will take more time and effort on your part than working through the same steps for someone else’s work will. Remember always to take your time and to question your own writing. You are, after all, saving yourself the expense of hiring a professional. It is still critical to have someone else – a friend, a co-worker, a family member with acute reading skills – look over your draft work when you conclude that it is finished. The logic behind this undertaking is your thorough familiarity with your own writing: If completely on your own, that intimate author-text-acquaintance presents the risk of you not being able to read what is in actuality in your text. As an outcome, you will not be in a position to catch all surface errors and / or discrepancies in that written draft.
