Before I go on… I have stolen the main editing stages of this from someone else on the internet. If it’s you, please drop me a line so I can credit you properly!
For Ray, or anyone else starting to edit content,
This was what helped in my first few writing and editing jobs, particularly when it came to editing other writers. I adapted a bit to their way of working, but it was useful to have an editing process as a guide. It also meant I could give constructive feedback, and articulate what worked well and what would make their piece better.
Before editing
The point of editing is to get your writer to speak to reader in a way the reader will follow and understand. So to kick off, make sure both editor and writer are clear about:
- Audience, reader or users – who it’s for is critical for every editorial and content decision. Writing for someone with subject knowledge is very different to a complete beginner, so make sure you agree on audience. If you’re at odds about who it’s for, you’ll edit and write with different people in mind, and – trust me on this – it’s very frustrating for all involved.
- Topic and purpose – what is the piece about and why write this now? I find the ‘think, feel, do’ framework (aka empathy mapping) the simplest method to centre your audience in this. For editorial writing, considering about the story’s angle and similar articles on the subject is useful to pinpoint the why here too.
- Format and location of interaction – less essential but I find it helpful to understand constraints early on. If it’s an open brief, consider which format is most effective for the user group and where they’re going to engage with it. For example, paper-based reading is experienced differently than on screens, and a bus stop poster has different format needs to a social media caption. Style of the publisher or platform also comes in here.
Usually lots of this stuff is already floating around in people’s heads, so it’s more about noting it down somewhere, doing research for any gaps and checking all involved are aligned.
Before editing also comes writing, of course. So let’s assume that happens and you now have something to edit.
Do big revisions first
Big revision is about organising content and checking it fits your audience, purpose and format overall. I think of this as reviewing the largest units of language, so moving whole sections and paragraphs around.
Questions to ask:
- Main idea/angle: can you easily identify the angle, most important idea or takeaway?
- Key details: is there enough supporting information of different types?
- Opening: is the top of the story enticing, engaging and relevant? Does it grab you enough to make you want to read more? Look up lede and nut graf for journalist advice around this.
- Structure: are the ideas in the right order to lead to a logical conclusion?
- Ending: do you end with a clear sense of what’s important and why to care? If needed, is there a clear call to action or next step?
- Voice: does this sound appropriate for the audience and topic?
Do small revisions next
These are more technical checks that happen after big revisions. Small revisions focus more on the readability of your content. So you start moving into sentences and words.
Questions to ask:
- Concision and clarity: is the writing free of unnecessary words and phrases? And are concepts clear?
- Word choice: are verbs precise and words appropriate for audience and topic? This links closely with the tone and voice too.
- Sentence fluency: does copy flow with different sentence structures and lengths?
- Heads and subheads: are there enough to break up content, help organisation, and support skimming and scanning?
- Word count: do you need to add or cut to reach limit?
- Formatting: does the format make the content easy to read? To me this means paragraph breaks, bold, italics etc
In practice, the editing process is never this linear and you’ll probably do a mixture of big and small revisions each draft. You start to get a feel for it the more you do.
Do edits last
Edits happen on your final draft, after all revisions are done. They’re about smaller technical and style checks, including spelling, punctuation, usage and grammar. You do these last because it’s more efficient than fixing earlier on.