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While you might be the best writer around, it doesn't matter if your work isn't edited well. From grammar to spelling, you need to make sure each piece of writing you send off or publish is error free. Though we are all prone to mistakes, learning to be your own editor will not only help you be more effective with your writing, but it will also allow you to be taken more seriously. Here are some tips to make sure your writing is flawless.

Learn the Rules

It makes sense that if you want to learn to write well, you need to learn from others who already know the rules. There are a number of excellent books on grammar and punctuation available – and it's a good idea to have a few on hand at all times. "Elements of Style" by Strunk and White is a class, but "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser is another favorite. Choose a few grammar related books and read them closely. You will want to practice writing the sentences they have written, and make sure you understand the rules they are trying to teach.

Pretend It's Not Yours

The best way to approach your own writing is to pretend the piece of writing is not yours. We tend to be less forgiving of others' work, so pretending like that article isn't yours will help you to find more mistakes than you might have otherwise. Look at the piece for what might be wrong with it, not so that you feel bad about your writing, but so that you can find ways to make it even better than it is.

Read It Backwards

Another way to approach editing is to read your manuscript backwards, from the last sentence to the first sentence. This will make you pay attention to the words before you as reading in the traditional way often causes the author of the work to skim over the overall text. Slow down and take your time when you are editing so that you can find all of the possible errors and fix them before anyone else knows you've made a mistake.

Use the Tools You Have

Word processing programs are brilliant pieces of software, but when you're not using all the tools they supply, you're missing out. Spell check programs can help you detect simple mistakes and typos in your work, while the grammar check functions can allow you to see where sentence changes may need to be made. Of course, no computer program will be able to detect all of the errors you've made, but these programs can help you fix a number of issues. Though editing may seem tedious at first, it will become second nature as you continue to make it a part of your writing practice. In time, you will make fewer errors, which will lead to less editing time – and this means you will have even more time for writing.