Edit Your Finished Product

Introduction

To edit a document is not just to revise. It is also to look at each sentence in detail to make sure that it flows well and is correct. Although it is important to organize your document correctly, it will not be as effective as it could be without clear sentences.

Line editing is reading a document line by line, analyzing each sentence, and ensuring your language, flow, and meaning are as clear as possible. This can be daunting, but a careful read-through of your document will allow you to catch ambiguities, mistypes, and confusing statements.

Why line-edit?

Line editing is crucial to the understandability of your document. When you first write a document, ideas flow, meaning that correct syntax and punctuation usually go out the window. But that's okay! The first time you write something, it should not be pretty because you should focus on getting all the ideas out with a proper explanation. This will help your writing to flow better and be easier for you to understand. But, once the information is on the page, focus on your writing at the sentence level to ensure your audience will understand it too.