In this Harvard Business Review article, Jane Rosenzweig, Director of the Harvard Writing Center, says that it’s better to change writing habits than to change a few words at the last-minute.

You should certainly spell-check and proofread every document before you click submit. But if your message isn’t as clear as it needs to be, changing the word “purchase” to “buy” isn’t going to help. Instead, focus on the big picture with these three strategies:

• Cut the “since the dawn of time” opening and get right to the point.
• Turn those descriptive topic sentences into topic sentences that make claims.
• Make sure people are doing things in your sentences — unless you don’t want them to be doing things. If you get in the habit of using these three strategies, you should find you won’t need to do as much last-minute editing in the future.

Jane suggests the three strategies for achieving a cleaner writing:

• In your opening paragraph, get straight to the main point. “In most cases, your readers don’t need to hear every thought anyone has ever had about your topic. They need to know what they should think about the topic right now. When you lead with your main point, you focus your reader’s attention where it belongs. Keep only the background information that’s important to your message, and cut the rest. … The first or “topic” sentence of a paragraph tells readers what to expect in the rest of the paragraph.
• Turn those descriptive topic sentences into topic sentences that make claims. “When you begin a paragraph with a claim, you teach readers what to expect — and you remind yourself what the rest of the paragraph should deliver. If you make a habit of writing claim-based topic sentences, you’ll have less editing to do in the future.
• Make sure people are doing things in your sentences, unless you don’t want them to be doing things. ” For example: The CEO decided to close the branch locations. An alternative version: The decision was made to close the branch locations. 

In the article, Jane explains these strategies by giving use case examples.