Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Starting The Edit Off The Right Way


There's always the preliminary work before you start any job. Especially when it comes to the kind of copywriting that you want to be professional, and certainly when you're trying to edit you own copy as more content writers are, you really need to take a step back and do a little research that will save you time when you're self editing.

First off, most editors need to know if the document answers the questions that it set out to. If it's so far off the mark that you can't even tell what it's really about, then more than likely you'll need to send it back for a rewrite. Especially when you're dealing with business copy, you'll want to be able differentiate between fact and opinion as well.

Editing is all about polishing what's already there, but you need to be clear about what it is that you're looking at. Finally, you need to decide is there is a balance before you start or if there is too much or too little information.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Being A Text Editor in This New Age

Lots of things have changed since I started out as a journalist years ago and one of them is the way that a text editor on the Internet works their trade. When I started, we used pencils to mark all the edits that we needed to make, but there's no doubt in my mind that the track changes used today with the Word program is a much more efficient way for manuscript editors to work.
I've done editing jobs( both fiction and nonfiction) for people as far away as Australia and Puerto Rico and the Internet makes it easy and enjoyable. I started online as a manuscript editor with two of the bigger online companies but I know the decision to go out on my own brings a more immediate relationship for my clients.