How to edit your own writing

So, you've finished that report, presentation, proposal, email. It's important, and you want to get it right, and now you have to edit what you've written.

The trouble is, editing your own work is tricky. Our brains tend to read what we think is there, instead of what's actually there, so here are some hacks that will help you to approach things with a fresh eye.

1. Get some distance – preferably overnight – so you can look at it a bit more objectively.
2. Read it out loud. This will help you to hear where sentences are too long or nonsensical, where words are missing, or so on.
3. Before you read it, change the typeface and the background colour of the page (you can change them back after you've read through it). This tricks your brain into thinking it's seeing something new. If it's not overly long, printing it out and reading a hard copy will have the same effect.

Those are just some tricks I've learnt along the way. If you really want to get to grips with some of the things you should be looking out for while you're writing, check out my "Editing 101" here.