After spending hours and days on your manuscript, won’t you spend a little more time to make it perfect? But, how would you know the correct way to improve your manuscript, or what amendments to make. Well, it’s not that simple, nor is it that difficult as well. The present post on “Tips To Improve Your Manuscript” provides seven essential tips that will enable you to know whether your manuscript is good or bad, and how to tell the difference. Simply follow these seven basic tips to improve your manuscript’s quality.
Seven Tips to Improve your Manuscript
Print it out
Reading the manuscript on laptop and making amendments on it can be a bit hard and strenuous.
Instead, it is easier to detect errors on a printed page.
So, take a print out of the manuscript, relax yourself on the sofa, and start making corrections.
Read it out loud
Read your manuscript out loud. This way, you can hear and easily detect any clumsy word, repetitions, extra long sentences and general errors in the text.
Try to write in a conversational manner.
Avoid being too formal. Thus, read out loud your copy and check what needs to be fixed.
Spell-check
Spelling mistakes are one of the most common errors found in written manuscripts.
Check line by line to detect any spelling mistakes, misused words, and missing or incorrect apostrophes.
Be careful while checking grammatical errors and often-misused words, such as “they’re”, “their”, or “there”.
Clarity
Carefully check the clarity and accuracy of text in your manuscript.
Can any sentence be shortened? Or could any sentence be made more clear?
Try to get your message across effectively. Use examples, if needed, to support your claims and clarify your point.
Avoid too many passive sentences. Instead, use action verbs wherever possible.
Check these faults
Avoid anything awkward in your text. Because, if you find anything awkward, your reader will find it too. Ensure that your text runs smoothly.
Check for any confusing or unclear sentences. Ensure that your text is completely crisp and clear.
Provide adequate information for any facts that may seem otherwise unbelievable.
Avoid boring and dull sentences. Try to keep your text light and engaging, so that the reader can’t stop reading on.
Use Track Changes
If you are editing or proofreading your manuscript using the MS Word, ensure to the Track Changes option.
This option allows you to track your editing and corrections, as well as accept or reject the changes made.
You can also use this option for keeping tabs on anyone else who is editing/proofreading your manuscript.
Readability
Try to check the Flesch reading ease score of your manuscript. The finest copywriters try to maintain this around 80% or better. However, this is not always possible as in case of the manuscripts that has many technical terms.
Also, try to check the Flesch-Kincaid grade level score of your manuscript. Despite the age or intellect of your readers, try to keep your copy at the sixth grade level. Maintaining your manuscript in this level makes your text easier to read.
Last but not least, be confident. Be sure about what you are writing and why you are writing. Gain enough prior knowledge about the topic. And of course, follow these simple yet effective tips to improve your manuscript’s quality and effectiveness.