Questions to focus on: Revising and Editing Writing

These questions can be used at different levels. You can take 30 seconds to think about one or two. You can discuss them in a team or group of like-minded Christians. Or they can be used in a college class, including assignments and research projects, and answered in writing at any depth. They may be freely reproduced for this purpose. Please email us additional questions that could be added to this page.
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  1. Why is it best to edit and revise on paper, not on screen?
  2. Why is it useful to leave a piece of writing for a few days, then go back to it?
  3. Take a published item from any newspaper or magazine. Can you shorten it and improve the readability?
  4. Why are active verbs better than passive verbs?
  5. Are you prepared to spend time on a website which has bad spelling, poor punctuation, and confused thoughts?
  6. Find examples of websites with tight, flowing, clear writing.
  7. Are you familiar with the Flesch Reading Ease score? MS Word will automatically analyze a piece of writing to produce a Flesch score.
  8. What are the special needs of second-language readers?