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When you write the first draft of your article don’t worry too much about how many words you are writing or whether you are making spelling mistakes. The whole point of a first draft is to have a text which you can work from. The finished article is unlikely to look anything like your first draft. Write a first draft quickly and make sure you include all of the points in a logical order. When the draft is finished you can count the words to have an idea of how much more you need to write or (and this is much more likely) how much you need to delete.

When you have finished your first draft you need to examine it very carefully and make the necessary changes. It is a good idea to use a checklist at this stage. You can write your own checklist based on the typical mistakes that you usually make. It’s a good idea to look back at writing that you have had corrected in the past and see what type of mistakes you normally make. That way you can avoid them when you write your article. Look at this example of a checklist. The list is quite general. You can add more personal items such as “check the articles” or “check capital letters for place names”.

Have I included a title?
Have I checked the spelling?
Have I divided the text into logical paragraphs?
Is my introduction appropriate?
Is the ending ok?
Have I included all of the information?
Have I used the correct verb tenses?
Is the style appropriate?
Is my punctuation correct?

This is also the time to look carefully at your choice of vocabulary. Have you used the same word three or four times? Repetition will bore your readers so try to find an alternative word or expression. An online thesaurus like http://thesaurus.reference.com/ is ideal for finding synonyms.