Here’s another booby trap for authors:  When rewording a sentence, make sure you take out any words that are no longer needed. Many of the editing faux pas examples I find involve extraneous words that weren’t deleted when a change was made.

Always reread a sentence after you revise it. This is one of the easiest mistakes to make when you’re editing. If you don’t catch it and clean it up, your reader will trip over it like an overly friendly cat rubbing against your legs.

Creating flawless copy isn’t easy or simple. There are all sorts of alligators hiding in the water, just waiting to jump out and startle your reader and make you look like an amateur. This is why you need a good editor.