7 Proven Tricks to Achieve Best Results in Editing and Proofreading
Editing and proofreading is modifying a piece of writing’s content, organisation, grammar and presentation. The goal of editing is to ensure that your thoughts are conveyed properly and clear to the reader.
Therefore, we have listed down some of the best tricks for you to achieve the best results in editing.
1. Read Your Content From the Audience’s Eyes
Once you’ve finished your first article, it’s time to read it aloud and pretend you’re someone else—specifically, someone in your target audience. That may be a persona or an avatar of a particular portion of your audience with specific interests and concerns. Consider if that individual would value this item.
Your responses to these questions will aid you in adjusting future revisions to meet your audience’s demands.
2. Read Aloud Your Written Content
When you read your work aloud, you’ll notice awkward twists of phrases, misspelled words and complicated sentence patterns. After hours of writing, it’s a fantastic opportunity to examine your work.
Reading aloud is beneficial to more than just your grammar. You’ll be able to spot gaps in your genuine voice—moments when your work ceases to seem like “you.” You could also discover new ways to improve your writing’s flow and speed.
3. Shorter Paragraphs are Better
Shorter paragraphs and phrases are simpler to understand. The human brain seeks natural gaps in the text and interprets what it has just read during those pauses. If you ramble on for too long, you’ll lose your reader.
The majority of your sentences should be between 20 and 25 words long. Publishers argue on the optimal length of a paragraph for web content—some believe two sentences are sufficient, while others need a minimum of five phrases. Whatever rule you use, keep each paragraph to one idea.
You may need numerous sentences to expound on a critical point, or you might want to use colourful language to underline the importance of a concept. Let your imagination go wild! Just make sure to divide your thoughts into manageable bits.
4. Say No to Jargons
It’s critical to distinguish between industry-specific colloquialisms and language used by specialists to communicate explicitly about high-level topics when using the term “Jargon“.
Any industry-specific terminology may appear nonsense to an outsider. When writing for your peers, this type of jargon might be beneficial if you adapt your terminology to their experience level.
On the other hand, the second type of jargon complicates your writing. Don’t confuse a “nice” term with a precise one. When you could “use” something instead of “using” it, don’t use the words “utilising” or “leveraging.”
5. Give Proper Time
Take your time throughout the writing process, not only during the editing stage. Spend time to come up with mind-blowing concepts. Create a detailed plan to help you stay on track with your writing; when you’re feeling motivated, set aside some time to write. Ensure you give yourself plenty of time to go through revisions.
A 1,500-word blog article can take up to six hours for some authors I know. They aren’t slackers nor they are inexperienced. Because of their time management abilities, they do not require emergency intervention. Since it requires extensive research, creativity, implementation, editing and proofreading, the writing process takes six hours. They don’t hurry any part of their job, and you shouldn’t either.
6. Take Help From the Copyeditor
Copyediting aids in the concise and clear communication of ideas and views. It also aids in the effective improvement of knowledge and writing abilities. When it comes to editing their work, many authors believe that editing is quite helpful. It can be done by the author or a third party. No matter whatever path a writer takes, every piece of writing must be edited.
Copyeditors are taught to identify mistakes quicker and more precisely than the ordinary content writer. Unlike other grammar-checking tools, they apply context to your work and discern between grammatical faults and minor quirks in your writing voice.
If you don’t have access to a human copywriter, ‘Grammarly‘ is a great option. Its grammar robots look for mistakes everywhere as you type, even inside email bodies.
7. Avoid Passive Voice
Look for any sentence in which the verb acts on the subject to detect passive voice in your work. The subject (“this article“), for example, receives the verb “to write” in the sentence “This apple was eaten by me.”
This phrase might be rewritten in active voice by replacing “this apple” with the word acting. You now have a statement that is more straightforward and uses fewer words!
8. Why is Editing Necessary in Writing?
In writing, editing is essential. It is an integral part of the overall writing process. It provides techniques for identifying any repetition as well as grammatical, punctuation and vocabulary problems.
However, editing and proofreading are pretty crucial for every article or writing. It not only assists you in eliminating mistakes but also improves your work. It clarifies your tale and makes it easier to spot minor faults. Despite how tedious and monotonous the editing process might be, it always results in a great lot of delight.
9. Good Quality Writing
Writers may be terrible at seeing mistakes in their work. This can be due to their commitment to their work and understanding of what they wanted to express, making them oblivious to faults. As a result, this causes them to detract from the general flow of the text, resulting in a boring final output.
Editing and proofreading is necessary to solve this problem, as no one can generate error-free material on their first try. 2nd round of editing includes correction of typographical/other mistakes which results in a finished piece of work.
10. The Simple and Clear Message
Finally, another reason for the significance of editing is that it guarantees your content is presented simply. We don’t modify our content when edited and proofread, but we do enhance the flow and logic of our writing. We make sure that all of our arguments and thoughts are coherently presented to communicate and comprehend the message by others.
CONCLUSION
These are some tips by which you can have the best results in editing. Moreover, by implementing them, you can ensure you work at the highest standards. When you do any work, proofreading and editing are necessary. There are many free editing software available which can help you edit your work. If you are a new writer, click here to get the proofreading and editing tips for newbie writers. Furthermore, if you want to get your work edited and proofread you can contact us to get our services.