Editing Part III: Tips On Editing Your Own Work

Guest Blogger Sharon Sutinen, Editor and Owner of Vital Virtual Services shares her expertise with us in her third post in the series about editing. Enjoy!

Editing Part III: Tips On Editing Your Own Work
If you cannot afford to hire a good editor, then you need to put forth the time and effort to go through your own work more than once. Here are some tips to help you spot some common problems:

• SPELLCHECK your work! While it is true that a spellchecker cannot catch all errors and will miss quite a few, too, it will still catch some.
• Do not assume all the corrections that the spellchecker is suggesting are correct. Sometimes they don’t have it right.
• Read it out loud. Often just hearing the words will help you pinpoint poor sentence structure and misspellings.
• Print it out and read it to a child or baby as if it is a bedtime story. This helps take the material out of context and less “comfortable” for you, allowing your brain less ability to “fill in” what isn’t there.
  
• Wait at least a day after writing your material to reread it.
  

In addition, you should invest in a good dictionary, a good thesaurus, and an English Grammar book. One of my favorites is The Little, Brown Handbook" by Fowler. It is very easy to look up grammar rules and they always give very relevant examples so you can figure out what’s best. Keep these reference books handy and don’t be afraid to consult with them.

Thanks for reading, good luck and happy writing!

Editing Part II: Best Foot Forward To Get That Foot In The Door

Guest Blogger Sharon Sutinen, Editor and Owner of Vital Virtual Services shares her expertise with us in a series of posts about editing. Enjoy!

Editing Part II: Best Foot Forward To Get That Foot In The Door
To have a brochure, a website, or a proposal in the hands of a potential client is not your primary goal. Your goal is to have that particular prospect remember you in a positive way and want to contact you for more information. Your efforts are wasted if they merely toss that brochure at the sight of the first error, not bookmark your error-ridden website for future needs, and want to forget about you at their nearest opportunity. Errors and hard-to-read copy directly translate into lost sales.

Avoid a Negative First Impression
While it is true that there are people who do not notice, would not know the difference, and/or do not care about typographical, grammatical, and syntax errors, there are far more who DO notice and WILL get a negative impression. More often than not, it means the difference between a prospect calling you or moving on to the next company or person who responded to their RFP. You cannot get "your foot in the door" without giving the best impression by putting "your best foot forward."

Bad Copy Translates Into Lost Sales
There are a number of issues a reader may perceive when he/she reads your sales copy.

• They get the impression that you may not care enough for them if you did not care enough for you.
• They worry if you missed those errors in your material, where will you err with their project.
• They may be concerned that you do not have the proper staff to handle all aspects of your business.
  

A Positive Impression
The impression your sales copy leaves needs to be positive. How your website gets perceived needs to be favorable. In addition, a negative impact is remembered far longer than a positive, so you’re hurting your future business, not just your current business.

Editing - Part 1 - Have Someone Else Take A Look At Your Work

Guest Blogger Sharon Sutinen, Editor and Owner of Vital Virtual Services shares her expertise with us in a series of posts about editing. Enjoy!

Errors Flying Across the Internet Miles!
In this age of social media, instant messaging, text messaging, and the like, there are plenty of errors flying across the Internet miles, into print, even onto the television screen. I've even noticed blatant errors on the NEWS! For some, after seeing the same error over and over, they start to believe that what they are seeing is correct. Many people have gotten complacent in their writing, accepting of shortcuts and abbreviations, and lazy. They're often not even aware of it.

A Fresh Pair of Eyes
It’s difficult to edit your own material. Our brains have the ability to fill in the blanks and therefore not notice an error or omission. You need a fresh pair of eyes. After writing and rewriting, our brains have a tendency to register something as correct, fill in the blanks, and generally not see some errors. After awhile they all look corrrect, even when there not, and you don't actually sea (nor will a spell-checker all ways catch) wear their errors. For example, the sentence you just read is fraught with errors! It really should read "After a while, they all look correct, even when they're not, and you don't actually see (nor will a spell-checker always catch) where they're errors." The only error the spellchecker would have actually pinpointed is the 3 “Rs” in correct.

Everyone Needs an Editor/Proofreader
A proofreader would catch those pesky errors that hurt your credibility. A good editor will catch those errors and also help you with your readability. For example: "After a while, some errors may look correct even when they are not. You may not actually see (nor will a spell-checker always catch) certain errors."

Write from right
You need someone who will know that "alot" is not a word, "judgement" looks right but is wrong, and that they're going to use their knowledge to understand the difference between they're, there, and their. And, while we're on the subject, they need to know that its' is NOT a word in any context (even though a spell-checker does not recognize it as an error!). Your editor or proofreader should actually know when "all ways" is the correct term or if it should be "always"; he/she knows when to use "some times" and "sometimes", and when the word is "awhile" and when it really is "a while".

Follow my friend, Sharon Sutinen, on Twitter @VirtualSharon where she shares grammar tips and more!