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Proofreading

Proofreading

Editing deals with the overall structure and content of your writing. Proofreading gets more nitpicky, looking at spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes, as well as typos. To make sure that you don’t introduce any new errors, always proofread after editing.

Typos and Spelling

Always use a spell checker while writing, but don’t rely on it. Correct any spelling mistakes that your spell checker finds, and then read your post backwards or out loud to spot any more mistakes. Spell checkers improve constantly, but they aren’t perfect, especially with homophones. Be particularly careful that you’ve spelled commonly confused words correctly.

Grammar and Punctuation

Grammar checkers aren’t as sophisticated as spell checkers yet; they miss many mistakes and  catch “mistakes” that aren’t real. Use them, but with caution!

Taking the Stellar University grammar and punctuation lessons is your best bet for spotting grammar and punctuation mistakes. Pay special attention to dangling modifiers, subject-verb agreement, subject-pronoun agreement, and run-on sentences.

Consistency

Consistency checkers don’t exist yet, so you’re on your own for this one. Make sure that you stick to consistent spelling and punctuation choices throughout your copy.

In this lesson, I wrote “spell checker”, so I want to make sure that I don’t have “spellchecker” as well. Similarly, in the previous sentence, I put the comma outside of the quotation marks, following British style.

Any more comma-quotation mark pairs that I use must follow the same format.

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Outlining

Outlining

As a content writer, you want to write quickly. After all, the faster you write the happier your clients will be with your turnaround time, and the more money you’ll make. Since speed is one of your goals, you might think that you don’t have time for outlining. But you do.

Save Time

Obviously, outlining takes time. But if it stops your writer’s block and limits the editing that you need to do, then outlining actually saves time. Let’s look at some outlining techniques and time-saving strategies.

Work Out a Title

Before you can write, you need to know what you’re writing about. That advice sounds obvious, but I mean really know. Let’s say your client has given you a topic, but no title. You need to narrow that topic down to a working title. Corey Eridon explains the difference between a topic and a working title: “[A] topic is something general, while a working title is specific”.

Topic: SEO 2014 trends

Title: The 5 Hottest SEO Trends of 2014

Topic: Homemade artisan bread

Title: How to Make Artisan Sourdough Bread Overnight

Your working title doesn’t have to be your final wording; it’s just a guide for what you want to communicate in your writing.

Brainstorm

Now, you want to brainstorm ideas relating to your title. Remember, in brainstorming, all ideas are good ideas. Write down as many ideas as possible, but once you can’t think of any more, move on to the next step. If you can’t think of a title, you can brainstorm that too.

Organize

Now that you’ve got ideas, it’s time to arrange them. Ask yourself: What are the most important ideas here? Are there any overarching themes? What’s the best flow? Organize your ideas together in logical groups and discard unimportant or irrelevant ideas.

Title: How to Use Commas Like a Pro

Brainstorm: lists, no comma splices, conjunctions, with quotation marks, with adjectives, Oxford comma, difference between commas and semicolons

Organized:

  • Lists
    • Oxford Comma
  • Conjunctions
    • No comma splices
  • With Quotation Marks
  • With Adjectives

See how I’ve grouped together related ideas, arranged my ideas in a logical order (simple to more complex uses), and eliminated less relevant ideas (difference between commas and semicolons)? For this outline, I used bullet points, but you can also use a simple list, a mind map, a traditional outline, or something else that works for you.

Tweak Your Outline

How does your outline look? If you spent a lot of time brainstorming, it might be full of ideas (maybe even too many). If you had trouble brainstorming, you might think of some ideas that you need to add now.

Also check that each of your main points has a similar number of supporting points. If you’ve got six supporting ideas there, but none here, try combining some ideas or breaking the big group into a couple smaller ones.

Tweak your outline until you think you’ve got all the information you need to write easily and without interruptions.

Just Write

Congratulations! You’ve already done the most difficult work. After outlining, writing will be easy-peasy. Now, I can’t promise that you’ll never get stuck while writing.

But if you do, ask yourself what information you should have had in your outline to help you, and include that information next time. You also don’t have to follow the suggestions in this lesson.

As long as you find a planning method that helps you write efficiently, you’re good to go.

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Editing

You pound out your final sentence, hit submit, and breath a sigh of relief: You’re done. Ummm…not so quickly. Every good writer knows the necessity of editing. Writing develops your ideas, but editing strengthens the presentation of those ideas.

Write, Then Edit

Writing and editing are separate processes. When you write, don’t worry about grammar, spelling, structure, word choice, or any other nitpicky details. If you have a decent outline, you won’t go too far off-track, so just write, and save your editing for later.

Break Time!

When I said, “Write, then edit”, I should have said, “Write, take a break, then edit”. You’re a busy writer, so I know you want to start your next project right away, but don’t shortchange your editing time.

Ideally, you should take a day off between writing and editing. If that’s not possible, have lunch, go for a walk, or think about something else for 20 minutes.

When you write, you’re heavily invested in your work. Taking a break detaches you from your writing, so that you can edit objectively.

Alright, you’ve taken a break, now you’re ready to edit. Here are questions to ask while editing.

Does It Flow?

Read your whole copy through once. Do you like the structure? Does it progress logically? Should you move some paragraphs around? Keep in mind that many readers will never reach the end of your post.

Will they still learn anything if they make it half way or only read your intro? Can you use the inverted pyramid layout?

Is That Necessary?

Question every word, sentence, and paragraph. Is that the sharpest, most powerful word you can use? Does that sentence help your argument? Can you shorten it, or divide it into two sentences?

What’s the purpose of that paragraph? Does it belong here or would it be more effective elsewhere? Occasionally, you’ll add words while editing, but editing is mainly about trimming your writing.

If you don’t cut any words, you’re doing it wrong.

Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?

Have you answered these six questions? Some questions are more relevant for certain topics than others, but think of how they all relate to the subject you’re writing about.

If you’ve forgotten to include who should use SEO or where the best dog walking parks are, answer those questions.

Are They Hooked and Inspired?

If you’re like me, you find introductions and conclusions the hardest to write. Knowing that those sections give your readers their first and last impressions is a lot of pressure.

Pay special attention to your opening and closing sentences. Does your intro hook readers? Do you move on to your important points quickly?

Do you finish with a call to action? How will your readers feel at the end of your piece?

How Does It Sound?

Reading out loud is one of the best ways to edit. When you read silently, it’s easy to skim. Reading out loud forces you to slow down, and it also reveals any awkward phrases. Are your sentences so long that you run out of breath? Are they too short and choppy? Do you repeat words excessively?

By now, you may be feeling overwhelmed by my questions. Keep this list, or a similar one, handy while you edit, and move through it from start to finish so that you don’t forget any steps.

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