TITLE: Should I write to the referee?
QUESTION [6 upvotes]: I have submitted a paper to a good journal about 3 months ago. Now I have realized that there is a mistake in the paper. Now I have completely corrected it. It is not a very serious error,  but I think it could create some problems in reading the paper. In particular there is a definition that should be changed, but not in a trivial way. The main results of the paper remain essentially unchanged.
So my question is: should I write to the editors of the journal in order to inform the referee about this problem or should I wait some comments by the referee?
Thank's!

REPLY [6 votes]: If the correction will help the referee understand your paper better, you should definitely write it up and send it to the editors, who will pass it on to the referee.  Having served as a referee I can honestly say that I would always appreciate receiving clarifications, and would not hold that against anyone.  You might also send a very short note, explaining the changes.