Editing Tips For Great Content Writing

Editing Tips for Great Content Writing
Editing is done with the sole intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate and complete work.
Editing of any written content can broadly be divided into two types: active and passive. Active editing includes Developmental Editing and Copyediting and Substantive Editing and Proofreading are forms of passive editing.
Editing and proofreading is a boring business but requires extreme focus and concentration. Here are some editing tips for great content writing.
1. Keep all your editing tools in place. You need:
a controlled willingness to find fault
a good dictionary
adequate supply of materials on that topic
good judgment
pens of different colors, in case of hard copies
2. Before you start editing and proofreading, its very important to define the reader or the audience. Ask yourself does the text answer all the 5Ws and 1H: who, what, why, when, where and how.
3. As you start editing, read out loud. Reading out loud helps you to identify grammatical errors, unwanted words and phrases.
4. Read backwards, word by word, as you proofread. Reading in reverse allows you to identify spelling errors which you might miss.
5. Do not use jargon and cut down on clichs, every fancy word and phrases. Moreover, get rid of every word or phrase does not add value to your writing.
6. Where a short word will do just well as a long one, use the short form:
among, not amongst
method not methodology
also, instead of in addition to or furthermore
but, instead of however
show not demonstrate
if not in the case that
to rather than in order to
7. Throw out unnecessary redundancies you dont need and omit unnecessary adverbs such as totally obsolete, deeply impressed.
8. Re-write passive sentences and ensure there is a subject-verb agreement.
E.g.: Sam saw the cat.
E.g.: The cat saw Sam.

9. Use a spell checker, but don't depend on them. This is because computers cannot differentiate between homonyms:
Lead or led
E.g.: Led is a heavy metal.
Grate or great
E.g.: Coleridge is a grate poet.
Ate or eight
E.g.: I eight an apple.
10. Use the right word. Just because a word is spelt correctly does not mean that it is the right word:
Comprise or constitutes
E.g.: Fifty-one states constitute the USA.
E.g.: USA comprises of 51 states.
Imply or Infer
E.g.: Intelligence implies the ability to be successful in school. Because this student has earned the best grades in the school, we infer that she is intelligent.
11. It is a good copyediting practice to check the numbers and add up.
E.g.: 43% of the mobile phones sold in 2011 are from Nokia, 16% are from Samsung and the rest of 39% belong to Micromax.
Also, check that figure/table references match figures and tables and descriptions match abbreviations. Double check proper names.
12. Do not introduce errors while editing. Re-check whenever you make a change to the copy and change nothing without a good reason.
13. Always keep commas, dashes, hyphens and brackets to a minimum.
14. Take a print of the copy and read it. Have others read it to ascertain flawless proofreading.
15. First, proofread the body of the text. Then go back and proof the headings. Headings are prone to error because copyeditors often dont focus on them.