And Other Best Editing Practices That Can Help

Every article, blog post or website page — in fact, anything that will appear online — must be edited before it’s published. This seems like a no-brainer, an assertion that’s so obvious that no one would argue against it. But as you likely know, not everyone follows best editing practices. And it’s both unfortunate and so easy to fix.

Any professional writer worth her salt knows that a piece of writing is only as good as the editor behind it. Once you’ve seen your share of typos, misspellings, dangling modifiers, vague pronoun references and creative grammar, you begin to see the light. It’s like one of those “Ah-ha!” moments. You realize that if just one other person had read through the writing before it was published, 90 percent of the problems could have been corrected.

Mistakes Happen

It’s usually best to give your work to another person because a second pair of eyes can catch things in your own writing that you’ll never see for yourself. For example, your eye will fly right over mistakes such as:

• Misspelled names
• Missing words
• Incorrect pronoun use
• Wrong word use

You can find the mistakes you know are there, but it takes another person to see the mistakes you make that you don’t even know you make. You won’t pause to double-check names that look right to you. Your mind will fill in the missing words, so you won’t even notice they’re not really there. And the other errors will seem correct.

Best Editing Practices That Are Easy

Editing doesn’t have to be a difficult, expensive or drawn-out process. While a professional editor should review anything that involves your business, you don’t need to hire one for your personal blog. But you should learn some common editing tips so you too can get closer to best editing practices. Easy editing techniques include:

1. Sleeping on it. This little tip really works, especially if you’re a good writer. Basically, after you’ve finished the first draft — and that means finished it completely — put it aside and don’t even look at it. Return to it the next day, when you’re refreshed but it’s not so fresh in your mind, and reread your words, checking to see if it’s as wonderful as you remember. Be objective and make the changes you need to make to improve the article. You will find lots of mistakes and things to change.
    
2. Read it out loud. This tactic is common among novelists and screenwriters, but it can work for your online content, too. It’s one of those best editing practices that seems too easy, but simply by reading something out loud, to yourself or to another person, highlights obvious errors that you’d otherwise miss. Your eye’s trained to read just what’s on the page so the absence of words jumps out at you.
    
3. Read it backward. If you’re sure what you wrote is bullet-proof, read it backward. You’ll find misspellings, and odd word choices that you’ll feel compelled to change. You won’t catch any grammar mistakes doing this exercise, but you’ll be amazed at what you do find. This may become your standard practice.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.