How to Edit Your Essay: Quick Hacks for Students

By Julie Blair Riekse, Pragmatic Pen Writing Coach

Yes, I've been telling you to write big. This allows you to infuse your piece with ideas and personality. But now, it's time to put your narrative on a diet.

Here are my tried-and-true strategies.

1. Print out your essay on paper. Pretend to be a television news anchor. Go find your dog. Without looking at your essay, give him the headline. (This should be your contention.) If you can't do that, rewrite yours.

2. Read your essay out loud in entirely to Scruffy. You'll start tripping over sentences that are too range-y and know immediately they need to be clipped. Underline them.

2. Break the longish, underlined sentences into two. Kill one.

3. If you can't eliminate one of the two sentences, divide the word count in half and deploy only 50 percent.

4. Spike any duplicative sentences.

5. Get out a red pen. Circle all the prepositional phrases. Eliminate them.

6. Deploy contractions for an easier feel.

7. How are your transitions? Most students' are too cluttered which uses up word count. Replace them with "flip turns." These are easy words and phrases like "Finally," "But then," "I realized," "In turn..." I know Mrs. Smith taught you to do otherwise in English class, but trust me on this: I've published a bazillion articles and a book.

8. Did you use my BFF the colon? It gooses the reader, demanding he/she pays attention for your touchdown.

9. Now that your dog has heard your essay, move on to the rest of your family. Call Grandma and Aunt Bev. They'll hear things you're missing.

10. Throw your piece into a tech scrubber like Grammarly. You don't want bad mechanics distracting from your content.