modern copywriter

Today, being a great copywriter also means being a great editor. Gone are the days of simply tapping out a piece and sending it off to an editor somewhere, who will clean it up, polish it, and make it ready for publication. Not only will this approach make your editors want to pull their hair out, but it also won’t do anything to help you grow your skills! Instead, it’s critical for today’s working copywriters to hone their editing skills, so they can improve and strengthen their content as they write it, rather than simply doing a post-mortem when it comes back covered in red ink. 25 Editing Must-Dos for Smart Copywriters To overhaul your editing game and write the best content of your life in 2017, follow these 25 smart editing tips: 1. Pay Attention While You Write Great editing has its foundation in great writing. The more tuned-in and attentive you are as you write a piece, the easier it will be to edit later. With that in mind, start your editing process as you’re writing. Instead of writing with the television on, or in a loud area where you’re distracted by neighboring conversations, do yourself the courtesy of focusing entirely on the task at hand. If you can work in a quiet office, that’s your best bet. If not, put on some headphones with some instrumental music that won’t damage your focus. Pay attention to every sentence you type and write like you’re going to go back and edit later. While you can’t expect your first draft to be Harvard Business Review-ready, you also aren’t doing anyone any favors by phoning it in. 2. Walk Away From All Your Content Before You Edit It Want a recipe for terrible editing? Edit your content immediately after you’ve written it. Writing is hard work, and forcing yourself to dive back into something with a fine-tooth comb after you’ve just wrapped up the writing process isn’t smart. Instead, write your piece and then walk away for a few hours (at least), or a day. This serves two important purposes: It gives your brain a chance to let go of the content and view it with a fresh perspective later. Secondly, it allows you to think about what you’ve written, and catch your own typos, misspellings, and grammar mistakes, which can be tough to identify when you dive right back in. 3. Read for Flow “Flow” is an intangible thing that all great writing has to have. If you read through your content and find that it’s jolty, confusing, or broken, you’ve got a problem. One great way to identify flow issues is to read your content out loud. Since you’re the person who wrote the material, and thus the one who is most familiar with it, reading it out loud should be a piece of cake for you. If you stumble over words or get stuck, though, you can bet the flow needs some adjustment. Read all your material for flow, before you even evaluate it for grammar or structure. 4. Strive for Powerful Intros Content without a powerful intro is like a cake without frosting: boring, dry, and unappealing. To make your content exciting for both your editors and your readers, it’s essential to pay some additional attention to your intro. Ideally, your introduction should “grab” the reader, and make him or her intensely interested in what comes next. Again, this is a component of editing that requires you to walk away from your content for a while. When you come back to it and read the first line, are you interested? Do you feel compelled? If you have a hard time making this judgement call yourself, ask a friend to read the material for you and give you their opinion. Since strong intros are so essential to the overall readability of your material, putting in the time and effort to get them right will help overhaul your material, in the long run. 5. Use Tools to Grade Your Headlines Today, crafting a great headline doesn’t require you to rely solely on your own creativity. Tools like the Advanced Marketing Institute headline analyzer can evaluate your headline and “grade” it according to its concentration of intellectual, empathetic, and spiritual words, as well as metrics like length and keyword inclusion. 40%+ is a great grade to aim for. Instead of just rattling off a headline and calling it good, plug your next title into one of these machines and see what comes up. If your headline isn’t as strong as it should be, spend the time to fix it. Remember: 80% of people read your headline, while only 20% read body copy, so investing in your headline is a smart decision. 6. Use Several Grammar Checkers In the modern world, Microsoft Word’s spelling and grammar checker won’t cut it. To make sure your content is web ready, run it through a few different checkers, such as Grammarly and the one on your word processor, to catch any mistakes you didn’t see with the naked eye. 7. Use Hemingway to Simplify Your Content Hemingway is an app that helps make your writing “bold and clear.” When you plug a content segment into the app, it highlights sentences that are difficult to read, proposes simpler words, and highlights passive voice. Ideal for anyone who writes for the web on a regular basis, this app is a great way to lower the reading level of your content and make it more appealing for multiple audiences. 8. Clean Up Your Language As a copywriter, it pays to know the difference between casual voice and being unprofessional. While it’s one thing to seem warm and approachable, it’s another to alienate readers or editors with sloppy language. What’s more, the latter can actually cost your clients business. With this in mind, read through your content for any language that can be enhanced and made more professional. 9. Avoid Self-Aware Statements Editors hate reading statements like this one: … Read more