REVISING FOR STYLE AND MECHANICS
The techniques you’ve practised so far have demonstrated ways to focus on your readers and write a first draft. Now we’ll work on revising. Revising is integral to effective writing, and is a standard phase in the writing process. Analyzing your draft for its strengths and weaknesses, and revising to strengthen the writing is the best way to produce effective written communication.
The rest of the module focuses on some common trouble spots. We’ll look at two different aspects of the first draft: style and mechanics, and document flow and consistency.
In the ‘style and mechanics’ analysis, we’ll analyse strengths such as active voice, verb-based writing, and brevity, compared with their less-effective counterparts passive voice, noun-based writing, and wordiness. In the discussion of flow and consistency, we’ll explore ways of ensuring a smooth logical flow of ideas through the document.