If there is a piece of writing, it’s almost certainly gone through some sort of editing process afterwards. It’s just as important as the initial content writing process, as it forms everything together in good structure and form.
The editing process, for me, can begin during the writing process, self-critiquing as I go to make sure the sentence makes sense. To break things down, as I write I’m thinking of the best word possible to deliver the message and read well.
Editing the work is important to ensure the written work is of a high quality and put together well.
The editing process involves the following…
- Editing
- Drafting
- Grammar and spelling
- Identifying theme
- Establishing purpose
- Proofreading
- Structure
- Fact checking and research
- Revising for readability
Once the piece of work has been looked over and checked for little things, such as spelling and grammar, it is the duty of the editor to decide what to remove. A good editor must be able to see good writing – to know what good writing is and know how to remove a line in order to improve the piece of work.
If the writer is a builder, the editor is the architect, looking over blueprints and making sure everything is structurally sound and fits together well.
Most companies require good quality content writing for their websites, brochures, internal magazines, or other pieces of copy. Therefore, it’s very important the writing is not only proofread and grammatically correct, but also factually correct. In business, when portraying yourself online, it’s extremely important to tell the truth, be correct and consistent. When handling clients’ data, it’s also very important to get it right the first time. Copywriters do more than write. They research and spend a lot of time doing this, delving into different industries to have a better understanding. The editing process involves making sure the research is correct so it can be good enough for the world to see.
The editing process works essentially by ensuring good writing is perfect writing. Mistakes are normal human errors and sometimes they are unavoidable. Editing the work afterwards will recognise these errors, fix them, make sure it all makes sense and is factually correct. To be a good editor you need an eye for both good writing and bad writing to be able to critique, and subsequently end up with a good piece of work to represent the brand as a whole.
Michael Holloway
