1. Marcelo

    Marcelo Member

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    Reviewing your own work

    Discussion in 'Revision and Editing' started by Marcelo, Jul 6, 2009.

    If I want to review my own work, what exactly should I look for? Grammatical errors, flow... What else? Also, any tips to how notice them easier? You could say I'm blind when searching for errors in my work, even if it is ridden by them.
     
  2. arron89

    arron89 Banned

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    The easiest way to find problems with flow is to read your work aloud (or at least read it aloud in your head). That way, glitches with flow, pauses, syntax, things like that are all a little clearer. As for spelling and grammar, a word processor should do the majority of the checking for you, but you still just need to read through carefully to make sure there are no mistakes that aren't being picked up. But as the author, you should really be most focussed on the more urgent concerns of the piece...its easy to go back and correct a few SPaG errors...
     
  3. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    If you have been critiquing other writers' work, it becomes easier. Forget that you wrote it, and critique it as harshly as you can.
     
  4. 67Kangaroos

    67Kangaroos New Member

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    reviewing my own work is kinda hard. spelling and grammar are no big deal - easy for me and my word processor to pick up. but the hardest part is not letting what i know get in the way of what i read.

    i wrote it so i already know what happens, so if i try to review it, i can't easily pick up on places where it doesn't make sense or isn't clear to the reader. so, i do my best to forget what i know and see if it reads right... (does that even make sense?)
     
  5. arron89

    arron89 Banned

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    Knowing what happens should make it easier to find bits that don't make sense, not harder. As you are reading, having already written it, you should be thinking "Oh, this explains why that character says this later on", or "This is what's referred to at this point", something like that, tracing the patterns through your story. So if you come across a passage and it seems to be isolated or unnecessary or just confusing, it should be obvious because you won't be able to link it fluidly to the rest.

    Or if its an issue of not being able to communicate your ideas and images properly to the reader, that should be clear too, provided you read it through slowly and carefully, and think about the writing on a sentence by sentence basis, as a first time reader would do. It may sound tedious, but goiong through sentence by sentence and saying "Is this correct? Is it accurate? Is it correct? Is it stylish?" will make it obvious what needs work.
     

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