A few people have recently asked me for help with self-editing, so this is the first of a series of three posts on the subject.

Editing your own writing can be a challenge, because you are so familiar with your own style that you may not easily see how it can be improved. Your favourite words and phrases come so naturally to you that you may not notice you overwork them, which reduces their effectiveness over time — and the same problems apply to inappropriate use of jargon. Also, because you know what you are writing about and can easily follow your logic, you assume it will be clear to the reader too — not always the case! Let’s take a look at that last point today.

Start with the big picture by looking at the overall structure of your message. If it’s lengthy, did you break up the text with sub-headings? Sub-headings help your reader follow the story logically, so even relatively short messages can benefit from them.

Now look at those headings. First, do they accurately represent the subject you are writing about in their sections? Make them clear and obvious — your reader shouldn’t have to guess!

Next, does one idea flow naturally and logically into the next? Would the message benefit from reordering the subjects? Here’s an example to illustrate what I mean.

Say you’ve written a report to management recommending purchase of a new software package for your accounting system. Obviously, there is a cost to this, and you will have done a cost/benefit study to back up your recommendation. If your benefits greatly outweigh the cost, put the cost/benefit study right up near the beginning. On the other hand, if the cost is higher than you would like, move the cost/benefit study down so that you can expand on all the benefits before you mention the cost. That’s a valuable tip from the world of marketing, and all it takes is some judicious editing at the “big picture” level.

Next week we’ll move down a couple of levels and see how paragraphs and sentences can improve the impact of your written messages.