Lessons Learned While Re-editing My Old Articles on Medium
By: Jasmin El-I
Tags: Editing And Proofreading, Proofreading, Editing Tips, Proofreading Tips, Writing Tips

No, I haven’t finished editing all of them yet. It’s not because I have hundreds of stories here already, but still, I have a long way to go. I have gone through a few of the ones already published, and there have been notable mistakes I deem never to repeat.

So, without much ado. Here are the lessons I learned while re-reading and re-editing my old articles on Medium:

I used my old, low-quality photos.

I was very stubborn and insisted on using photos I took using my old phone ages ago. They were low-grade, dull, and uninspiring. I thought, if I only use photos I’ve taken, my articles would get more attention.

Well, I was wrong, and thank you very much, Unsplash, for your plethora of beautiful images. I wasted hours scanning my gallery for appropriate shots while you have all these high-quality, wonderfully captured photos that can be downloaded for free!

So, from now on, if I ever use any of my photos again, I’d be more selective.

I was redundant.

You might think it’s not possible to be beyond wordy, but well, I was. I was a fan of long-winded sentences. I thought I’d get my ideas across by being repetitive. I sounded as if I was a rambling lunatic in one of my articles.

I can only say, sorry, if you had read that particular story and got utterly confused instead of enlightened.

On that account, I’ll be sure to keep it short and concise.

I over-extended paragraphs.

Each consisted of more than seven sentences, which looked convoluted to some readers. I wasn’t trying to emulate James Joyce’s style. No, never in a million years would I get to that level. Anyhow, over-extending my paragraphs have been one of the things I overlooked and didn’t work in my favor.

There have been conflicting suggestions on how long a paragraph should be. As a reader myself, I can say that a paragraph shouldn’t exceed five lines for an easy and relaxed reading experience.

I cluttered my piece with links, videos, photos, etc.

There are two or three articles where I mixed in videos, photos, quotes, poems, Wikipedia links, etc. I wonder how readers felt when they came across those. At that time, I avoided reading my stories after they got published.

When I finally mustered up the courage to check out my own work, I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t understand a word. Well, that's an exaggeration. I could, of course, but it wasn’t an easy task leaping through the unnecessary layers before getting to the point.

I failed to see that the non-essential additives didn’t add to my work's appeal or clarity.

I would still use videos, photos, quotes, and links but not all of them at once. I learned my lesson.

I thought I could solely rely on my ability to correct grammatical mistakes.

I was persistent in doing all the editing. I initially thought that if I’d missed some errors, the editors would help. I was mistaken. Some of my stories weren’t chosen in publications because they were riddled with punctuation errors and wordiness.

I have to thank one of the best writers I’ve come across here who advised me to run one of my articles through an editing app. Thank you very much, ma’am—much respect to you. I am adamant about mentioning your name on this piece, but I hope you come across it and know that you’re the one who convinced me to be less bullheaded.

Henceforth, all my articles would be read and re-read and ran through an editing app before submitting to publications.