How to Improve Your Editing Process

Having strong editorial skills means you can effectively review content, make corrections based on your company's brand and guidelines, and provide feedback to stakeholders. It also means you're detail-oriented, creative, and an impactful communicator. That's why having an efficient editing process is key to your success.​

​When you're first getting started with editing, it's common to begin editing line-by-line, without taking the whole context of the content into consideration. It's also common to try to edit a piece of content all at once and while there are distractions nearby. While editing processes may differ from one person to the next, we've compiled a handful of tips you can follow to help streamline your workflow and edit more efficiently. Check them out below.​

​Find a quiet space to edit your content.​

​Editing involves a lot of reading, and noisy backgrounds or chatty coworkers can make it difficult to concentrate on the content and comprehend what's being taught. This can cause errors to be missed, concepts to remain confusing or out of order, and it can cause you to need more time to review the content. Editing in a quiet space will help lessen the distractions, which will help you be more diligent and get into the flow of your editing process. This is especially important when you're editing different types of content, since your process may differ for each. For example, editing a script for a podcast or video will usually mean you need to ​listen​ to the recorded content, as well as read it, while editing a blog post typically doesn't involve listening to a recording. Limiting your distractions based on the editing process you're about to work through is crucial to your success.​

​But finding a quiet space doesn't only mean closing the door or making sure no one is around. It also means turning off your phone notifications, computer notifications, emails, and anything else that's tempting to respond to right away. It's easy to lose focus and for time to disappear when you're being pulled in multiple directions. So, unless it's urgent, it's best to focus on your editing task and respond to those notifications later.​

​Block off your calendar and take breaks.​

​It's also helpful to block off periods of time on your calendar to focus on editing. Editing takes time and patience, so making sure you have dedicated time blocked off will help with your time management and prioritization. It will also help to make sure your calendar doesn't fill with meetings, leaving you with only small pockets of time to edit when you're not able to truly focus. That's not to say you shouldn't take breaks, though. Taking small breaks during long periods of editing will help you to re-focus and see the content from a new perspective. If you're feeling stuck or like you're not grasping something, take a break and come back to it later! Let your creativity and attention to detail recharge while you grab a coffee, take a walk, catch up with a friend, or whatever else you like to do on a break.​

​Bookmark helpful websites for quick referencing.​

​Do you find yourself using the same websites and tools repeatedly while you're editing? Bookmark them! That way, you know where to find them and can easily reference them when you need to. Here are some resources we recommend having ready:​

• ​Your company's style guides​

• ​Documents outlining your content strategy and methodology​

• ​Templates used to create content​

• ​​Content checklists and processes​

• ​Links to shared accounts with approved images​

• ​​Sites, like ​Grammarly​ or ​Hemmingway​, to check grammar and sentence structure​

​​These are only examples, so feel free to add to this list if there are other sites or resources your regularly use.​

​Read for context, structure, and flow first, grammar and punctuation second.​

​It's tempting to get a piece of content and start editing line-by-line from the top to the bottom as soon as you open it. Instead, read the content from a holistic perspective to get a feel for the context, structure, order, and flow of ideas first. More likely than not, there will be places within the content that need to be further explained, restructured, removed, or improved. Think about the following:​

• ​Does the introduction preface what's to come and explain the value the reader will get from the content? ​

• ​Does the organization of topics and ideas naturally guide the reader through the content, or are there areas where things feel out of place and like they should be included elsewhere?​

• ​​Does the content leave you feeling like you want more explanation?​

​​Spotting gaps in these instances before you focus on grammar and punctuation will save you an abundance of time. Imagine editing line-by-line only to realize the content needs to be restructured — you'd have to line-edit all over again.​

​After you've read through the content and provided feedback or made changes to the context, structure, and flow, you can begin checking the grammar and punctuation. A good tip to remember is to not try to solve for everything all at once. Instead, look for something specific each time you read through the content. For example, you might read through the content looking for spelling and punctuation errors, followed by a second or third review looking for style guide violations. Doing this let's you hone your focus on one area which will lessen your chances of missing something.​

​Read the content out loud.​

​It can be easy for our brains to skim through content and fill in what's not really there, or skip over something that actually doesn't make sense. Reading content out loud can help with this. It can help you spot errors, like spelling and punctuation, but it can also help you spot sentences that are too long, too wordy, hard to say, and confusing to understand. It also allows you to catch words or phrases that are used too repeatedly, like "for example" or "additionally." A helpful to tip to remember is that if a sentence is hard to say and comprehend out loud, it's usually hard to comprehend when read.​

​Edit for the way people consume content.​

​It's important to keep the platform you're using to publish content in mind, since how people consume content on each platform varies. For example, as an editor for web copy, you need to solve for the visual flow of the content as much as the copy itself. Think about the length of paragraphs, spacing, and the structure of headings and sub-content. Are there enough paragraph breaks? Are paragraphs 3-5 sentences each? Is the structure easy to navigate? Does the copy align with the heading it falls under? Can someone skip to a random paragraph and figure out what's going on based on the context?​

​Keeping questions like this at the forefront of your mind will help ensure the content is written and formatted for the platform it's published on.​

​Know when the content is good enough.​

​There will always be something you can do to improve a piece of writing, but knowing when the content is good enough will save you both time and energy, and it will help ensure you're hitting deadlines. But, how do you know what constitutes something as

​good enough​? Ask yourself the following:​

• ​​Does the content solve the problem, address the need, or convey the message intended?​

• ​Does the content align with your brand?​

• ​Is the quality of content consistent or above your brand's other content?​

• ​Have all questions and issues been addressed and resolved?​

• ​What impact does a prolonged deadline have?​

​​Spending your time repeatedly improving, polishing, and refining the same piece of content isn't realistic — especially when you're responsible for multiple projects simultaneously. Using these questions as a framework for determining when content is good enough will help keep you moving forward.​

​Include both positive and constructive feedback in your edits.​

​While the role of an editor is to catch errors and push writers to improve their skills, it's also our role to encourage them and let them know what they're doing well. Providing positive feedback in the mix of constructive feedback can help ensure your writers don't feel defeated and make them feel excited about starting a second draft, or working on a brand new piece of content. ​

​Did you love an example they used? Was there an image that stood out to you? Did they easily explain a tricky concept? Tell them by calling out the strong aspect of the content with comments, like "Love how you explained this," "This is a great visual," "What a strong closing!" and etc.​

​But don't forget to provide constructive feedback, too. After all, constructive feedback is what helps writers improve their skills. The type of constructive feedback you provide will vary from writer to writer, but some common examples include:​

• ​The use of active and passive voice​

• ​​The order of indirect and direct clauses​

• ​The amount of "filler" words used​

• ​The tendency to use run-on sentences​

• ​The use of transition words and phrases​

• ​The use of examples to frame a concept​

​It's also a smart idea to provide action items for your writers, whether it's via email or in the project management tool your company uses. Do they need to rename a file? Add alt text? Further explain a concept? Be sure to let them know what next steps they need to complete before the content can move into its next phase.​

​The more you edit, the more you'll find what works for you. And the more you find what works for you, the more successful your company's content will be. We understand there are a lot of things to remember before you can publish a piece of content, so be sure to check the resources section for The Ultimate Online Editing and Proofreading Checklist to help you stay organized.