Rewrite: your draft as an evolutionary prototype
The last thing to do is to start from the beginning
The last email of the Miirror Framework series is about what you do after you finish writing your text: you rewrite it.
First, think about the Message — which is formed by Information and Intention.
Then think about the Reader — which requires Rapport and Order.
Then Rewrite it.
This topic is a wrap-up of all other points of attention. Re-read your text to be sure that the message is clear, with both the information and the intention you want to transmit reflected in your writing. Visualize your readers and check that you made some effort to create rapport and that you ordered the text in a way that will be more comfortable for the reader to understand it.
The rule is that at least one complete re-read is mandatory after you finish your first draft.
Think about rewriting as code refactoring. The first draft probably works on a basic level, but some fixes surely are needed. Uncovered edge cases — a small piece of the message missing for a particular reader. Bugs — an intention that might be misinterpreted. Lack of readability — a complex sequence that would only be understood by someone who already knows the message. Lack of documentation — information without the necessary context to be interpreted. Lack of performance — taking too many words to make a point, using too much of the reader's time.
There are still typos and common orthography and grammar errors. As indentation and styling in your code, these are better handled by an automated tool. I use Grammarly, it is perfect for this. No affiliation, just a happy user. In the absence of this, I recommend one last reading focused only on finding typos and errors. And please, please watch this video from time to time: Weird Al Yankovic’s Word Crimes. Seriously, do it.
This ends the series detailing each topic of the Miirror framework. It is intended to work as a guide for effective writing, but it is almost a theoretical one. Next, I will cover a more practical and specific topic: how to write commit messages.
