Remove every instance of the word “that” as possible. Sometimes you have to use it for clarity, but most times it can be cut.

Avoid clichés. They are worn out and boring. Find a new and exciting way to say it.

Wordiness in general. If you can say it in six words, do so, don’t use ten words to pad word counts.

Avoid “to be” verbs (am, are, was, were, has, have been, had been, will have been, to be, and being) when possible. They make your sentences passive.

Avoid “there are”, “there was”, “there were”, especially at the beginning of a sentence. Instead of saying, “There was a horse grazing in the pasture.”, say “A horse grazed in the pasture.” This sample also eliminated an “ing” ending, which made the sentence tighter and better.

Make sure tenses agree. (Wrong: He went to groom his horse, then goes to the dog kennel. Correct: He went to groom his horse, then went to the dog kennel. Or better: He went to groom his horse, then to the dog kennel.)

Make sure you have singular and plural agreement. (Wrong: The cats is making a mess in the kitchen. Correct: The cats are making a mess in the kitchen.)

Using “should of”, “would of”, or “could of”, is incorrect. You need to say, “should have”, “would have”, or “could have”, or the contractions, “should’ve”, “would’ve”, or “could’ve”. If possible, it’s best to avoid “should”, “would”, “could” altogether.

If a sentence can be broken into two, do it. Shorter sentences are better.

Word confusion: Too = also, to = preposition, they’re = they are, there = place, their = possession, who’s = who is, whose = possession.

Add an “s” to make a word plural. Add an “’s” to make a word possessive (with the exception of the word “it”. Adding “’s” to “it” means “it is”.

You “lie” on the bed, but you “lay” another object on the table.

Beware of dangling modifiers. (Running for cover, the machine guns cut the men down.) The machine guns didn’t run for cover. But that’s exactly what this sentence says happened. Dangling modifiers have the power to send editors and readers into gales of laughter…and not in a good way.

Remove “the” when it comes before a noun that can stand alone.

Remove the words “up”, “down”, “over”, “under”, whenever possible. Most of the time, you won’t need them.

If you are producing creative writing there are some additional things you want to avoid.

-   Beginning a scene with a character waking up. Just don’t do it. Start with something happening, not someone cracking their eyes open. Same for ending a scene with characters going to sleep. Avoid it, you’ll put your readers to sleep.

-   Smiling and grinning. It’s okay for a character to do this once in a while, but you don’t want to pepper your text with it.

-   Improper POV (point of view) switches, also known as head-hopping. This is when you are writing in one character’s POV and you switch in mid-paragraph or mid-page, into another character’s POV. Point of view changes are normally done at the end of a scene or at the end of a chapter. That said, there are writers who head-hop and do it successfully. They’re usually romance writers and are very adept at it. To make it work, it has to be very clear that a change has taken place and who the new POV character is. And it is never done in the middle of a paragraph. A new paragraph is required for the hop. You are better off avoiding head-hopping until you master it, if then.

-   How you open your story is very important. Don’t dump in a lot of background information. The reader can learn about those things as the story unfolds. Begin with the event that changes the main character’s life.

Good editing is the difference between a professional and an amateur. Polish your articles and stories until they shine.