As a copywriter, I am often asked to edit first drafts of articles written by clients who receive outsourced marketing services from Flex Marketing. Why do they create the first drafts? Generally, they are the experts in their subject matter – they know what to communicate, just not how to communicate it. Often the content is of a technical nature and therefore my job as copywriter and editor is to improve the readability. Editing includes revising, organising and presenting the text. This process involves a variety of skills: 

• Grammar and punctuation 
• Simplifying the language to make it easier to read without losing the meaning 
• Making it as interesting as possible to read 
• Making the tone consistent and ‘on-brand’ with other articles that may have been written by other authors 
• And if the goal of the writing is to lead or influence a sale of a product or service, to make it compelling and persuasive 
• Proofreading – for accuracy and professionalism 
• ‘Readability’ is a measure of how comfortable a piece of writing is to read, including factors such as ‘ease’ and ‘clarity’.

If you are in a similar position of needing to improve someone else’s writing before publication, here are a few editing tips: 

• Brush up on your knowledge of grammar and punctuation rules – particularly when to capitalise words, the correct use of things like speech marks, apostrophes, hyphens (n dashes, m dashes) and colon vs semicolon etc. Even if you’re grammar is sharp (did you spot the mistake?), use a free tool like Grammarly…it even checks your text in social media or emails 
• Simplifying language is more than choosing easier words to replace complex ones (where possible) and removing unnecessary words – it also involves better formatting. Break up large blocks of text with paragraph breaks and bullet point lists, shorten sentences, add subheadings and use bolding selectively to help readers skim the read text 
• One of the easiest ways to draw readers in and make the text interesting is to use an effective heading. Another way is to make sure that you use a story-telling mindset. Come back to edit the first paragraph after writing the first draft to make sure that the beginning and end of the article tie into each other. This leaves the reader feeling satisfied when they reach the end of the article (like the circle has been closed!). 
• Familiarise yourself with the other articles that have already been published under the brand – what is the consistent tone and language? How can the same style be applied by editing the article you are working on? Remember that formatting also needs to remain consistent, that is why using templates or referring to a brand style guide is useful 
• If the article needs to be compelling or persuasive, you may deliberately need to swap passive words for more active ones. Find a list of ‘power words’ (you can search on Google for a list of them) and use some of those in the article to improve the level of authority and persuasiveness. Use them sparingly…it is possible to over-do the power words! Having a call to action is also essential for increasing the chance of sales conversion. What do you want the reader to do next? Book an appointment? Download a free resource? Sign up for a free trial? Don’t leave them hanging…you need to tell them what to do next 
• Proofreading for complete accuracy is the best way to avoid embarrassing errors or looking unprofessional. Ideally, enlist the help of someone else who has not seen the first draft to proofread the article. Proofreading is a big topic and an important one that probably deserves me writing a complete set of tips just on that alone…one for a future article! In the meantime, if you are doing your own proofreading, the biggest tip I have is to slow down and take the time to check over the writing as if you are looking at it for the first time. 

Like many other areas of life, the Pareto principle applies to copywriting and editing. Approximately 20% of the time will be spent creating the initial draft, the remaining 80% will be on editing and proofreading. So, if you are also writing the initial draft yourself, make sure that you spend at least twice as long editing and proofreading your work as you initially spend on writing it.  

If you are ready to hand over the copywriting, editing and proofreading tasks to a professional copywriter, get in touch. I’m based in Auckland, New Zealand, however, can help you no matter where you are based.