It is important to edit your essay to ensure that readers focus on your ideas rather than on distracting problems of language and grammar.
While you can edit your essay at any point in the writing process, during the early phases of your writing it is more important to work with the content of your essay than with the details of your sentences. As you write you are likely to remove or substantially alter many of your ideas; thus, it is more efficient to delay paying close attention to sentence details until you have a relatively complete draft.
Be sure to leave sufficient time for a careful review and final edit of your essay before you submit it.
