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Editing is critical to the writing process. Whether you’re writing a fictional novel, marketing content, or drafting business material, editing is an essential step of the writing process because it serves the reader.
A good editing process begins and ends with the audience in mind, by creating messaging that is clear, concise, engaging, and readable.
So, at a glance, why is editing such a critical step? It helps you to create content that engages your target audience.
Editing does go beyond dotting i’s and crossing t’s, but the importance of grammar and spelling should not be understated.
According to a Forbes article, users spend less than a minute on a website, at an average of just 54 seconds. That means readers form impressions about your brand’s credibility and quality within seconds — poorly prepared content can drive your audience away before your message is even delivered.
With mere seconds to capture an audience’s attention, an obvious grammatical error can cause trust to plummet and visitors to click away.
In business, poorly crafted writing leads to confusion, diminished trust, and lost productivity. In contrast, clear, concise writing contributes to confidence and engagement.
Editing boosts the reader’s experience in every type of writing with steps for correcting grammar and spelling, as well as refining the overall content for the following:
The multi-step content editing process ensures that the final piece of writing is clear, accurate, and engaging for the audience.
When writing has been carefully edited, it is transformed from a rough draft to reader-ready content.
Whether you are writing fiction, business copy or web content, the competition for readership is high. To attract and retain prospective customers, content must be high-quality, valuable and, for starters, readable.
During a thorough editing process, a draft is reviewed and polished to be its most clear, accurate and engaging version.
Editing helps readers understand the content without being distracted by errors, misspellings, disorganization, or poor flow.
The words on the screen or printed page are a direct reflection of your brand. They reflect your company’s expertise, attention to detail, and professionalism. When content is well-crafted, valuable and clearly messaged, it builds trust and credibility with readers. It also shows a respect for your readers’ time.
In addition to reputation, well-edited content performs better. Because users tend to stick around and consume the content, metrics tend to reflect this engagement. From longer time-on-page and increased shareability to improved search engine rankings, professional-quality content brings a return on investment.
There are numerous facets of writing to review and edit, so different types of editing focus on different aspects of the content.
A piece of writing may require less intensive review at each stage, depending on its complexity. For instance, a social media post may require less intense editing than a long-form article, but all content should be reviewed for consistency, clarity, coherence, correctness, and credibility.
There are four main types of editing involved in the whole process. While there is some overlap between stages, each step generally targets different aspects of the written work.
For most content, especially long-form pieces, the content editing step is critical for ensuring the strength and presentation of the messaging as a whole.
This is the step in which a writer or content marketer scrutinizes the message to make sure it is people-first, logical, valuable, understandable, and well-supported.
Content editing digs into the substance of the message and quality of the delivery, while the other stages drill into the mechanics of the writing.
Whether you are a one-person crew of writer/editor or are reviewing your work before sharing it with an editor, it’s essential to follow best practices for self-editing, including:
By completing a comprehensive edit and content polishing process, you prepare your published work to have high readability and make a great impression on your audience.
As more writing is generated with AI tools, it has become even more important for writers to learn how to thoroughly and carefully edit written work.
While AI writing tools are increasingly popular for writers and content marketers, they can generate content with factual errors (known as AI hallucinations), stylistic inconsistencies and predictable or bland phrasing.
In contrast, human writers and editors bring contextual understanding, critical thinking and firsthand knowledge of the marketing strategy and content.
So, in the age of AI as well as editing for grammar and spelling, it’s also important to review content for AI with an AI checker and factual accuracy with a fact checker. That way, you can maintain transparency in the content you publish.
The strategizing, planning, and creating of content are investments of time, resources, and creativity. Editing isn’t an additional step in the process — it is a critical step in guaranteeing that the copy created is the strongest it can be before it is published and revealed to the world.
Carefully edited content leads to better engagement, which benefits your potential customers, your brand, and can ultimately lead to better sales.
Get a best-in-class suite of tools to streamline your editorial workflow, including an AI Checker, Grammar Checker, Plagiarism Checker, and Fact Checker.
Then, learn more content best practices in our top guides:
