Stay out of the rough

In my last post, I offered a Sherlockian tip on how to polish your writing by paring out the clutter that often creeps in. Below are other tips on smoothing the rough edges of your text before it's sent on its way.

Once you have gone through a few rewrites and you've applied the 10 Percent Solution (see my last post), walk away from the piece for an hour at least. If you have time, shelf it for a day or two. Then try any or of these proofing and polishing techniques:

-- Read through your copy backward. Doing so breaks up the tendency of your brain (as the writer) to miss typos, poor sentence constructions and a gaggle of other problems.

-- Read it out loud with feeling, as though you were presenting it in a packed auditorium. This is another way of catching flaws, particularly awkward phrasing and repetition.

-- Have someone read it out loud to you. Listen for where they stumble on your words. Watch to see if they're scrunching up their brow at something that puzzles them or doesn't sound right. That should alert you to trouble spots.

-- Most of us write on a computer. Try printing a hard copy of what you've written and scrutinize it with all the care of a fortune-teller peering at tea leaves. Sometimes just looking at something you've written through a different medium helps you catch mistakes.

-- As a corollary to the tip above, temporarily format your piece in a huge point size, like 24 or even bigger. This large-print version breaks up sentences more and forces your eye to move differently over the piece, often exposing blemishes.

OK, now I'm going to sound like your junior-high English teacher for a moment, but somebody has to do it: Well-crafted writing is all about revision. If you're in the habit of knocking something out and shipping it with barely a read-through, please stop. The rough draft is just that – "rough." Rare is the writer who gets it perfect the first time. Think of it this way: Proper polishing prevents piss-poor prose. Class adjourned.