Tips for rewriting sentences
Try shortening the selected sentence—perhaps by breaking it into two or more sentences. This is a very effective way of making your writing more concise, elegant, and straightforward. There is perhaps nothing a novice writer can do to improve sentence quality more effectively and simply.
Try writing multiple radically different variants, using more precise, specific, stylistically appropriate words.
Read the different sentence variants out loud, listening for flow and rhythm.
Consider using a thesaurus to increase the precision and beauty of your wording (and to increase your functional vocabulary).
Continue rewriting and comparing, sentence by sentence, until you have generated and selected the best sentence you can manage. You will know when you have managed this and when you cannot rewrite a better variant.
Tips for reordering sentences
Each sentence phrase in your essay must consist of the appropriate words in the optimal order. Each phrase must likewise be appropriate to the sentence that contains it and ordered properly in relation to the other phrases in that sentence. Finally, each sentence must find its proper place in sequence within each paragraph.
Rules of thumb for paragraph writing: The average paragraph develops a single idea, and is therefore akin to a very short essay. The initial sentence introduces the idea and links the paragraph to its preceding counterpart. The closing sentence brings the paragraph to an appropriate ending while making a bridge to the next paragraph. The average paragraph contains between three and ten sentences. Three may be too short, indicating an underdeveloped or unnecessary idea, unless it is written that way as a stylistic choice. A paragraph longer than ten sentences may be appropriately broken in two to decrease the load on the reader (and the writer).
Why write in this way?
There is immense value in separating the process of production and editing. Editing while writing prevents you from being at your creative best, and sows seeds of doubt before you have been able to express your ideas.
Rewrite and Reorder allow you to improve your writing at the sentence level, making sure each small (but essential) element of your writing has been given the attention it deserves.
Read the Essay guide for an in-depth explanation of the writing philosophy we've engrained throughout this platform.
Set a word count goal
Plan to write at least 25% more words than you will ultimately require (many accomplished writers would aim for much higher).
Although this may seem like more work, it's not. If you produce more than you need, you will not force yourself to try to make every word count when you start writing. This will free up your thoughts from the constraints of your inner critic. When you know that you will not keep everything you produce, you provide yourself with the freedom to explore and experiment. During the editing stages, you will also have the luxury of discarding the 25% of your work that is of the lowest quality (and you may decide to keep some of it for additional projects).