Editing Tips For Great Content Writing

Editing is done with the sole intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate and complete work.
Editing of any written content can broadly be divided into two types: active and passive. Active editing includes Developmental Editing and Copyediting and Substantive Editing and Proofreading are forms of passive editing.
Editing and proofreading is a boring business but requires extreme focus and concentration. Here are some editing tips for great content writing.
1. Keep all your editing tools in place. You need:
· a controlled willingness to find fault
· a good dictionary
· adequate supply of materials on that topic
· good judgment
· pens of different colors, in case of hard copies
2. Before you start editing and proofreading, it’s very important to define the reader or the audience. Ask yourself does the text answer all the 5Ws and 1H: who, what, why, when, where and how.
3. As you start editing, read out loud. Reading out loud helps you to identify grammatical errors, unwanted words and phrases.
4. Read backwards, word by word, as you proofread. Reading in reverse allows you to identify spelling errors which you might miss.
5. Do not use jargon and cut down on cliches, every fancy word and phrases. Moreover, get rid of every word or phrase does not add value to your writing.
6. Where a short word will do just well as a long one, use the short form:
· “among”, not “amongst”
· “method” not “methodology”
· “also”, instead of “in addition to” or “furthermore”
· “but”, instead of “however”
· “show” not “demonstrate”
· ‘if” not “in the case that”
· “to” rather than “”in order to”
7. Throw out unnecessary redundancies you don’t need and omit unnecessary adverbs such as “totally obsolete”, “deeply impressed”.
8. Re-write passive sentences and ensure there is a subject-verb agreement.
E.g.: Sam saw the cat.
E.g.: The cat saw Sam.
9. Use a spell checker, but don’t depend on them. This is because computers cannot differentiate between homonyms:
· “Lead” or “led”
E.g.: Led is a heavy metal.
· “Grate” or “great”
E.g.: Coleridge is a grate poet.
· “Ate” or “eight”
E.g.: I eight an apple.
10. Use the right word. Just because a word is spelt correctly does not mean that it is the right word:
· “Comprise” or “constitutes”
E.g.: Fifty-one states constitute the USA.
E.g.: USA comprises of 51 states.
· “Imply” or Infer”
E.g.: Intelligence implies the ability to be successful in school. Because this student has earned the best grades in the school, we infer that she is intelligent.
11. It is a good copyediting practice to check the numbers and add up.
E.g.: 43% of the mobile phones sold in 2011 are from Nokia, 16% are from Samsung and the rest of 39% belong to Micromax.
Also, check that figure/table references match figures and tables and descriptions match abbreviations. Double check proper names.
12. Do not introduce errors while editing. Re-check whenever you make a change to the copy and change nothing without a good reason.
13. Always keep commas, dashes, hyphens and brackets to a minimum.
14. Take a print of the copy and read it. Have others read it to ascertain flawless proofreading.
15. First, proofread the body of the text. Then go back and proof the headings. Headings are prone to error because copyeditors often don’t focus on them.