Want the secret to good copywriting? Good copy editing.
You’ll have clicked on this article looking for top tips for crafting great copy. But, bear with us, because the thing is, great copy happens AFTER the writing process. Once you lay down the pen or stop tapping away.
Welcome to the world of copyediting.
But First…What is Copy-Editing?
Copywriting is creating and scripting your brand’s written content.
This process is vastly improved by your ability to copyedit. That’s why we’ll focus on editing today, as a way of improving your writing.
Copyediting helps you to sharpen your brand voice and locate your brand positioning, making your work more recognisable and your content more engaging.
It’s not the same as proofreading. It’s more about enhancing the text’s clarity and communication than grammar and punctuation edits. It comes down to the bigger picture of your voice overall.
Here are some tips to hone your writing to elevate your brand and stand out from the rest:
1. Take A Break Before You Edit
We’re all guilty of getting too close to our writing. You’ve spent a long time on it. You can’t see the wood for the trees. We get it.
That’s why we encourage taking a step back between writing and editing.
Even a short break can help you look at your content more objectively. You’ll also be able to more accurately assess for consistency across topics in your previous pieces of writing.
A break helps you view your content like a reader will. Almost as if someone else wrote it!
2. Start With Structural Edits
Move your paragraphs around, think about what order makes the most sense and makes your content more cohesive.
Your structure and layout informs the flow of your writing. It’s like creating a strong foundation for a building: the architecture is much less likely to fall down if you dig into the earth a bit, rather than just popping bricks straight on the bare soil.
Plus, there’s no point editing at a sentence-level if you’re going to have to delete things later, because you’ve rearranged whole paragraphs, you know? Efficiency is great for everyone.
Finally, structural changes help you to think about your content’s goal. If you were to write a meta description now, what would you say? What’s the heart of the piece?
All this understanding will help, when you…
3. Move To Sentence-Level Edits
Now we’re looking at the fine details of your copy-editing. We’re talking grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, variety, vocabulary, and clarity. Vocab should be brand-specific, in keeping with your tone of voice, as well as your SEO goals.
This is where you are able to really engage with readers on a personal level. Add humour that’s unique to your business, so you leave a positive lasting impression.
4. Think About Your Sources
To make your copywriting more authoritative, it can be helpful to quote others, and refer to sites other than your own.
It demonstrates you’ve done your reading.
All you have to do at the copyediting stage is go back over the sources you chose originally. Do they seem reasonable, likely sources of information? Do others corroborate the claims they’ve made?
Also, have you linked to the sites you reference? That way, you credit people for their ideas. It’s also important because linking contributes to SEO.
5. Read Your Work Aloud
This comes back to our earlier concept: that you can be too close to things you’ve written, to accurately copy-edit them.
Reading sentences aloud helps you to engage a different part of your brain. You can actively hear where sentences are clunky and hard to read. If you start stuttering over a sentence, it might be worth re-working it.
Plus, you’re more likely to notice mistakes.
6. Use Editing Tools
Editing tools like Hemingway Editor and Grammarly help you understand the flow of your piece.
Hemingway Editor, for example, encourages you to write shorter sentences for greater clarity, giving you an overall score on your writing.
Grammarly adds suggestions to support your spelling and grammar. It also provides suggestions on clarity, engagement, delivery, and style.
7. Know When To Stop Editing
It’s all a bit subjective: you’ll never be truly finished when it comes to copy-editing, but you do have to know when to stop.
The time to stop will vary depending on the piece you’re writing, but when it becomes a struggle to pinpoint things to change, that’s usually a good time to put the pen down (or the keyboard in this case. If you’ve been picking at it for a few hours, and nothing is really changing, take another step back.
Maybe you’ll come back to it. Or, maybe the distance from it will help you realise it’s actually done, after all.
8. Get Feedback From Others
The best way to cope with being too close to a piece of writing, is to ask someone else! Two heads are better than one.
The crucial thing is not to be offended by feedback, but to see it as a chance to grow and learn. Feedback isn’t about criticising your writing, it’s about editing.
Others will notice things in your writing you never even imagined. That’s really helpful when it comes to understanding how to copy-edit your future articles.
You come back to the bigger picture. Make notes. What are your common mistakes? Be more efficient by being aware of them.
Zap Your Copy Into Shape
At Zap, we cover a lot of ground. From writing your marketing content, to editing your copy, to segmenting and targeting audiences, and even the technicalities of web design! Whatever it is, we’ve got it covered.
Get in touch today to find out more.
