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Being able to write well is one of the most important things you can learn as a writer. But there are two types of writers, ones who edit their own content and ones who edit other people’s content. One type edits his or her own writing, taking time to research appropriate vocabulary and grammar, while the other reviews the work of someone else and revises it for accuracy.
The one thing they have in common? They both need good editing skills!
That’s why being a copy editor is so valuable as a writer. You will be reading through something written by another person and making sure everything makes sense and is accurate with the context of the article or sentence it belongs in.
It’s also great practice for proofreading your own writing. When everyone has a basic understanding of how to use language effectively, it becomes easier to do that yourself.
But what if we took this one step further and said that anyone could become a better copy editor?
Yes, that’s right – anyone can learn how to edit any piece of content professionally! All it takes is some learning and practicing. And since we're talking about publishing online, you have access to a lot of content you can study from virtually anywhere at no cost.
Having someone check your spelling, grammar, and sentence structure is very important to ensuring the right message gets sent across!
But what makes up the other two components of the term “copy editor”? That is something that varies slightly from company to company and position to position within an organization.
For some people, content editing includes reviewing the article or paragraph for consistency in tone and emphasis. This can be done through use of appropriate adverbs (usefulness, effectiveness) instead of weaker ones (effective, helpful).
However, others may consider this as editorializing rather than writing. Product marketing teams will often times look into whether or not products and features are mentioned with enough emphasis and if they feel it is not, then they will suggest changes to make it more clearly stated.
Other positions may review whether certain keywords are used consistently and if there is no pattern, then new material needs to be created using those key words.
As mentioned before, not every position in journalism has an “editor” of their own vertical. That is why we have the next highest position: content editor. A content editor does not necessarily write his or her own article, but they make sure that what topic and voice someone else writes about fits his or her writing style and level.
Content editors are also responsible for ensuring that whatever person or organization sponsored the piece has been given adequate exposure by creating appropriate links and promotional material.
They may even edit the text and/or pictures of the sponsor to better match their branding. This process is called re-branding. Re-branding can be done very slightly (changing the color scheme) or heavily (removing references to products or services that no longer fit the brand).
General content editors are especially important because they are often directly influenced by the people reading their articles.
As a content marketer, you will be tasked with creating engaging, persuasive, and concise messages to promote products or services.
Your job is to tell people what product or service you are promoting and why it’s important for them to use it. You can talk about how great it is, or how much money it makes their business, but none of that matter if people don’t want the product or if they believe it isn’t worth the price.
With that said, there is one position that doesn’t get a lot of respect from marketers – the copy editor.
The copy editor changes the wording in someone else’s script to make it sound better.
This includes changing tenses, reordering sentences, and replacing vague terms with more descriptive ones. For example, instead of saying ‘bestseller’ we would say ‘favorite book’ because it gives off a more positive feeling.
In the same way, a thesaurus is used to find alternative word choices so that your message does not feel too clichéd.
These tools help give your speech more resonance and emphasize the importance of the given term or idea.
Being able as we are now, to find almost anything online these days, with the right software, you probably already know most of what it takes to write like a pro.
Having a way to publish your own material is one of the biggest ways to develop your writing skills. Plus, being able as we mentioned before, to easily share our work via social media and other sites, there’s really no reason to keep all of this information under lock and key anymore.
Being able as we are now to access almost any piece of content online, editing has become much easier than it was years ago when most publishers were limited to computer programs such as Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop.
With technology being more accessible today, there is no excuse for poor editorial quality. If you’re reading this article then you already know that good writing makes a difference and having a well-edited article can boost your website traffic and engagement.
That’s why it’s so important to make sure that what you write and how you write it is of top quality. It will only hurt if you don’t invest in professional proofreading services at some stage!
But before you start looking into those, you need to understand the key differences between an editist and a content writer.
As you can see, there are many ways to edit writing. The most important thing to know as an editor is what level you are working at.
The first level is content. A content writer creates content for other writers or publishers to put into their projects. This could be through social media postings, articles, blogs, and so on.
A copyeditor works with content that has been written by someone else before them. They may re-write sections, add new ones, or fix grammatical errors.
The second level is proofreading. A proofreader looks over material either line by line or page by page to ensure it is free of any mistakes.
The third level is editorial. An editorial writer takes information and adds additional details to make it more interesting. For example, if an article does not contain anything substantial, then no one will read it!
This three part structure makes creating an audience difficult. If you are only doing one of these jobs, then how do we get people’s attention?
If you are very experienced, you might want to try becoming a content writer first to gain some experience. Then move up the ladder from there.
Bad edits are too wordy or not enough- they lack substance to keep readers engaged. Using too many elaborate adjectives and/or taking longer than needed to make your points can lose focus for the reader.
When you need to edit someone else’s work, be careful not to overwrite theirs. If what you write is better then their previous piece, don’t try to take over that audience! Your version may seem more impressive but it will usually fall flat because no one wants to read about the same thing twice.
If there were none before, people might get tired of reading, or even lose interest altogether! A good content editor will find a way to weave in some material that is similar (but different) so that people can choose whether to stick with the original writer or move onto the new one.
Being an editor is not just about being a good writer, it’s also about being a people person. You will have to spend time working with other people — whether they're colleagues or authors dependent on you for work-related content and feedback.
As an editorial assistant, I had to edit pages written by other writers and then review those edits as well. I worked mostly with one author at a time so my workload was limited, but I still learned a lot!
If you’re already in a position where you can edit someone else's work, keep reading to learn more about what makes an effective content editor.
