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Revise in Reverse — 2 Quick Tricks for Revision
Get perspective on your writing by revising backwards
After the thrill of the first draft, writers crave perspective. We need some distance from our drafts in order to edit and revise.
One time-tested strategy for gaining perspective is to put some time between yourself and your draft. You can sleep on a piece overnight or stuff it in a drawer or a digital folder for a week or longer. But what if you are working on a deadline?
If you need to produce content quickly and don’t have time to sleep on it, try reverse outlining and proofreading backwards, two techniques I taught in a variety of writing classes at several American universities. The best practice for revision and proofreading is peer review, but college students are notorious for starting their papers the night before the due date, so they needed these techniques!
Using a reverse outline can help you to immediately correct any gaps in the logic and organization of your draft, and proofreading backwards can help you instantly correct the draft’s mechanics.
Both techniques work by separating your brain from the flow of your draft.
