How to Prepare Yourself to Write Well

There are many quick-and-easy tricks to improve your writing quickly, including using professional proofreading services and performing sentence-level editing and document formatting.

At the same time, hiring experts in professional proofreading can teach you how to improve as a writer, offering you a chance to see how a trained professional would have written a particular phrase or sentence.

However, preparing yourself to write well can also lead to dramatic benefits. Although this indirect approach may take longer compared to using quick-and-easy editing tricks (e.g., remove redundant expressions), it is well worth applying.

This article highlights some of the key tips that can help you to prepare effectively before writing, making the writing experience as quick and productive as possible.

 

1. Get a good night’s sleep

Especially if you’ve been working on a long proofreading or writing project with your client, you will eventually lose objectivity.

Given that proofreading and editing depend on an objective mind, a useful way to bring about that state of mind is to get a good night’s sleep.

 

2. Keep a list of errors

If you keep a list of all the errors you commonly make (e.g., in a Google Doc), you’ll be able to use this and bring it to bear whenever you begin a new writing project.

For example, I often confuse the words “its” and “it’s”, but because I have my list on Google Docs easy to hand, I never get them wrong in any of my published writing.

 

3. Know your tools

If you are working in the field of proofreading or writing, it is important to know about the tools that are available to make life easier.

Spellcheckers are a crucial tool for proofreaders and writers, and they play an indispensable role when preparing a manuscript for publication.

Tools such as style guides, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, are also important to exploit when preparing documents. Style guides are especially useful on large writing projects.

 

4. Don’t get distracted

Whether you’re preparing to proofread a document or researching a new topic, it’s important not to get distracted. This will limit your productivity and, as is essential for proofreading, prevent you from noticing small details and inconsistencies.

 

5. Check other people’s work

According to Steven Pinker, author of The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, one of the best ways to get better as a writer, editor, and proofreader is by digesting high-quality written documents.

Knowing about style guides and using spellcheckers are important, but it is also crucial to be an experienced reader who is familiar with different writing styles, tones, and audiences. Checking your friends’ work, as well as reading widely, can help you develop in these areas.