Holly Wood-Blake offers five practical tips for researchers to improve their written work by enhancing their self-editing skills.

Good self-editing means switching from the perspective of the writer to the perspective of the reader. It’s a valuable skill for researchers to build, especially in a world of strict word limits and limited attention spans. You will learn to ask yourself what is missing, what isn’t necessary, and what is difficult to understand – making your work more engaging for readers, supervisors, and reviewers alike.

Here are five steps to self-edit your work:

1. Take a break

One of the simplest editing tricks is also the hardest: step away from your writing! Even a few hours away from your desk, laptop, or notebook makes it much easier to spot unclear sentences, repetition, and missing explanations. Aim to finish your first draft a day or two early so that you have time to edit it with fresh eyes.

2. Edit for structure before wording

It can be tempting to start polishing individual sentences or words, or hunting for typos. Try asking structural questions first:

  • Does every section answer the question being asked?
  • Is the argument logical?
  • Does every paragraph have a clear purpose?
  • Is the most important information easy for the reader to find?

There’s little point in finessing words and sentences that you later decide to delete.

3. Make it easy to read

Whether you’re writing for a funding panel, journal editor, or non-academic audience, your reader is likely to have limited time. You don’t need to dazzle your reader with ornate or complicated writing. It’s more important to help them understand your ideas as quickly and easily as possible.

Look out for:

  • overly long sentences
  • unnecessary jargon or acronyms
  • repeated ideas
  • paragraphs that try to make multiple points

One of the best ways to test your writing is to read it aloud. If you find yourself running out of breath, stumbling over a sentence, or losing the thread of your argument, know that your reader might experience the same thing.

4. Check that every word and sentence earns their place

Much of the writing researchers do comes with strict word limits. Rather than seeing this as a restriction, treat it as an editing tool that can help you be clear and concise.

For a quick win, use your word processor’s ‘Find’ tool to look for commonly repeated words (e.g. ‘very’, ‘important’, ‘indeed’), as well as connectors such as ‘that’ which can sometimes be removed altogether or replaced by starting a new sentence.

Removing unnecessary words and sentences allows your strongest ideas to stand out.

5. Proofread carefully

Frequent typos, inconsistent formatting, and grammatical errors can all distract readers from your ideas and create the impression that you rushed or were careless.

Before you submit, do one final proofread focusing only on presentation. Check for spelling, punctuation, formatting, figure numbering, and references. Reading your work in a different format – such as a print copy, on your phone, or after changing the font – can help you spot the mistakes that you’ve skimmed over before now.

by Holly Wood-Blake

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