Try the Most Accurate AI Detector on the Market
Our patented AI checker is the most accurate detector on the market! Don't believe us? Try it for yourself!
Try for FREE Here!
Editing Guidelines

6 Tips for Editing a Rough Draft

Streamline your editing process and polish your rough drafts to perfection with these six essential editing tips.

Trusted By Industry Leaders
Trusted By Industry Leaders

Introduction

Our text compare tool is a fantastic, lightweight tool that provides plagiarism checks between two documents. Whether you are a student, blogger or publisher, this tool offers a great solution to detect and compare similarities between any two pieces of text. In this article, I will discuss the different ways to use the tool, the primary features of the tool and who this tool is for. There is an FAQ at the bottom if you run into any issues when trying to use the tool.

What makes Originality.ai’s text comparison tool stand out?

Keyword density helper – This tool comes with a built-in keyword density helper in some ways similar to the likes of SurferSEO or MarketMuse the difference being, ours is free! This feature shows the user the frequency of single or two word keywords in a document, meaning you can easily compare an article you have written against a competitor to see the major differences in keyword densities. This is especially useful for SEO’s who are looking to optimize their blog content for search engines and improve the blog’s visibility.

Ways to compare

File compare – Text comparison between files is a breeze with our tool. Simply select the files you would like to compare, hit “Upload” and our tool will automatically insert the content into the text area, then simply hit “Compare” and let our tool show you where the differences in the text are. By uploading a file, you can still check the keyword density in your content.

URL compare

Comparing text between URLs is effortless with our tool. Simply paste the URL you would like to get the content from (in our example we use a fantastic blog post by Sherice Jacob found here) hit “Submit URL” and our tool will automatically retrieve the contents of the page and paste it into the text area, then simply click “Compare” and let our tool highlight the difference between the URLs. This feature is especially useful for checking keyword density between pages!

Simple text compare

You can also easily compare text by copying and pasting it into each field, as demonstrated below.

Features of Originality.ai’s Text Compare Tool

Ease of use

Our text compare tool is created with the user in mind, it is designed to be accessible to everyone. Our tool allows users to upload files or enter a URL to extract text, this along with the lightweight design ensures a seamless experience. The interface is simple and straightforward, making it easy for users to compare text and detect the diff.

Multiple text file format support

Our tool provides support for a variety of different text files and microsoft word formats including pdf file, .docx, .odt, .doc, and .txt, giving users the ability to compare text from different sources with ease. This makes it a great solution for students, bloggers, and publishers who are looking for file comparison in different formats.

Protects intellectual property

Our text comparison tool helps you protect your intellectual property and helps prevent plagiarism. This tool provides an accurate comparison of texts, making it easy to ensure that your work is original and not copied from other sources. Our tool is a valuable resource for anyone looking to maintain the originality of their content.

User Data Privacy

Our text compare tool is secure and protects user data privacy. No data is ever saved to the tool, the users’ text is only scanned and pasted into the tool’s text area. This makes certain that users can use our tool with confidence, knowing their data is safe and secure.

Compatibility

Our text comparison tool is designed to work seamlessly across all size devices, ensuring maximum compatibility no matter your screen size. Whether you are using a large desktop monitor, a small laptop, a tablet or a smartphone, this tool adjusts to your screen size. This means that users can compare texts and detect the diff anywhere without the need for specialized hardware or software. This level of accessibility makes it an ideal solution for students or bloggers who value the originality of their work and need to compare text online anywhere at any time.

A rough draft is not the end of the process; it’s just the beginning! Now, the real work begins.

When you have a rough draft in hand and it’s time to start editing, the key is to be forgiving with yourself (if you’re self-editing) or the writer and not judge the work too soon (after all, just the first version). 

Whether you’re the writer or the editor, here are some steps to take to make the process go smoothly, so that you can effectively prepare your rough draft for publication.

Key Takeaways (TL;DR)

  1. Take a step back from the rough draft.
  2. Check for AI content and plagiarism in the copy.
  3. Consider the big picture.
  4. Address and amend any major problems (and their root causes) in the copy.
  5. Zoom in to edit the piece.
  6. Proofread and polish it to perfection.

Make the editorial process more efficient with Originality.ai’s best-in-class suite of editorial tools, including an AI Detector, Plagiarism Checker, and Grammar Checker.

1. Step Away From Your Work

If you’ve just spent hours working on an article or paper, you’re probably a little burnt out and tired. Now is not the time to start editing. Allow yourself some time to take a break. 

Be it an hour or a day, the time will clear your head and may even change your perspective. That way, you’ll be able to be more objective when you sit down to edit your rough draft.

2. Check for AI Content and Plagiarism

Before you jump into editing, ensure the copy is not duplicated. You also want to check if any of the copy is AI-generated. 

Both AI and plagiarism have a number of issues. 

For instance, AI text may sound stilted and is often repetitive, lacking nuance (but is often hard for humans to identify). Beyond the generic nature of AI copy, AI text can also cause several issues, including AI hallucinations, Google Penalties, and impact Google Search Quality Ratings.

Then, plagiarism has a number of consequences, including potential copyright issues and duplicate content, which can impact SEO.

The best way to discover AI and plagiarism is to use the industry-leading Originality.ai AI Checker and Plagiarism Checker.

3. Look at the Big Picture

Regardless of whether you’re the editor or writer, read the entire document. Don’t worry about grammar or misspelled words (yet). You want to see the overall picture.

Write notes concerning areas where the article is unclear. 

Then, categorize these issues. Issues could be too generalized or sometimes too specific, depending on the article’s goal.

Look for overall flow and note the article’s readability for the user. 

Does the article take the reader down a clear path to its conclusion? Will this article answer their questions? Ensure the overall point is clear from the perspective of the intended audience. 

Then, check that the article also matches the intent of the title. If it goes off-topic, this is a major issue that should be corrected and revised. 

In some cases, the overall article could be on topic, but a paragraph here or there may miss the mark. Make a note to address this later.

Once you’ve read it through, read it again.

4. Address Major Problems

After looking at the big picture now, it’s time to address any of the major problems you flagged in your editorial notes.

Whether you’re the writer or editor, run through this quick checklist:

  • Does the article clearly state what it’s about?
  • Is the article concise?
  • Is the article consistent (does it contradict itself)?

Why? The user must know exactly what they’re going to read.

Each point made should be clearly supported with evidence, so that the overall article is not only compelling but also logical and factually correct.

Then, don’t forget that if it has a call to action (like signing up, learning more about a product, etc.), to ensure it’s apparent and easy for customers or users to find. 

Identify root problems

So what happens if, as you’re reviewing the piece, it just doesn’t mesh with the established goals in your checklist? 

At this point, you need to identify the underlying reasons. The same holds true if you’re the writer or the editor. 

By identifying the problem’s origin, you can efficiently and effectively address the problem. 

Example: If the article isn’t clear or is vague, the research may be too weak, or in some cases, the topic may be too broad. If it’s a research problem, dig deeper and try to fill in the information gaps. If the subject is too broad, tighten it up more.

5. Zoom In to Edit

Once you’ve addressed all the major problems, start at the beginning and edit at a closer level (this is also referred to as line editing). 

  • Look at sentence construction: sentences shouldn’t be wordy or unclear.
  • Break up long blocks of text: this is especially important when writing for the web. 
  • Formatting must be reviewed: are proper H2s and H3s being used in blogs?
  • See what content needs to be removed for clarity: this is the time to rewrite paragraphs or delete sentences. 

When you’re done with this step, sentences should be clear, readable, and engaging.

7. Proofread and Polish

This is a crucial step; it’s time to check the grammar and spelling. Look for typos and double-check that every sentence and phrase is clear and concise. 

You also want to ensure that the article has a consistent voice from beginning to end. This is the final review for tone, organization, and formatting.

Final Thoughts

If you have a rough draft of your article, book, or blog post, congratulations! You’ve taken the first step. Now, as a quick review:

  • Step back and take a breath; the real work is about to begin.
  • Take the time to read your article before you start making changes.
  • Make notes that you can go back to later. 
  • Review the content before you dive into grammar and spelling.
  • Proofread your work carefully as a last step, so you can publish with confidence.

Streamline the editorial process with Originality.ai’s best-in-class suite of editorial tools, including an AI Detector, Plagiarism Checker, and Grammar Checker.

Then, discover more editing and writing best practices:

Anne Johnson

Anne Johnson is an editor, writer, and business owner who has spent over 20 years helping clients reach their digital content and SEO goals. She believes in helpful and relevant content that puts the user’s needs first. This leads to higher conversions for the client.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to fill out the entire form?

No, that’s one of the benefits, only fill out the areas which you think will be relevant to the prompts you require.

Why is the English so poor for some prompts?

When making the tool we had to make each prompt as general as possible to be able to include every kind of input. Not to worry though ChatGPT is smart and will still understand the prompt.

In The Press

Originality.ai has been featured for its accurate ability to detect GPT-3, Chat GPT and GPT-4 generated content. See some of the coverage below…

View All Press
Featured by Leading Publications

Originality.ai did a fantastic job on all three prompts, precisely detecting them as AI-written. Additionally, after I checked with actual human-written textual content, it did determine it as 100% human-generated, which is important.

Vahan Petrosyan

searchenginejournal.com

I use this tool most frequently to check for AI content personally. My most frequent use-case is checking content submitted by freelance writers we work with for AI and plagiarism.

Tom Demers

searchengineland.com

After extensive research and testing, we determined Originality.ai to be the most accurate technology.

Rock Content Team

rockcontent.com

Jon Gillham, Founder of Originality.ai came up with a tool to detect whether the content is written by humans or AI tools. It’s built on such technology that can specifically detect content by ChatGPT-3 — by giving you a spam score of 0-100, with an accuracy of 94%.

Felix Rose-Collins

ranktracker.com

ChatGPT lacks empathy and originality. It’s also recognized as AI-generated content most of the time by plagiarism and AI detectors like Originality.ai

Ashley Stahl

forbes.com

Originality.ai Do give them a shot! 

Sri Krishna

venturebeat.com

For web publishers, Originality.ai will enable you to scan your content seamlessly, see who has checked it previously, and detect if an AI-powered tool was implored.

Industry Trends

analyticsinsight.net

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it important to check for plagiarism?

Tools for conducting a plagiarism check between two documents online are important as it helps to ensure the originality and authenticity of written work. Plagiarism undermines the value of professional and educational institutions, as well as the integrity of the authors who write articles. By checking for plagiarism, you can ensure the work that you produce is original or properly attributed to the original author. This helps prevent the distribution of copied and misrepresented information.

What is Text Comparison?

Text comparison is the process of taking two or more pieces of text and comparing them to see if there are any similarities, differences and/or plagiarism. The objective of a text comparison is to see if one of the texts has been copied or paraphrased from another text. This text compare tool for plagiarism check between two documents has been built to help you streamline that process by finding the discrepancies with ease.

How do Text Comparison Tools Work?

Text comparison tools work by analyzing and comparing the contents of two or more text documents to find similarities and differences between them. This is typically done by breaking the texts down into smaller units such as sentences or phrases, and then calculating a similarity score based on the number of identical or nearly identical units. The comparison may be based on the exact wording of the text, or it may take into account synonyms and other variations in language. The results of the comparison are usually presented in the form of a report or visual representation, highlighting the similarities and differences between the texts.

String comparison is a fundamental operation in text comparison tools that involves comparing two sequences of characters to determine if they are identical or not. This comparison can be done at the character level or at a higher level, such as the word or sentence level.

The most basic form of string comparison is the equality test, where the two strings are compared character by character and a Boolean result indicating whether they are equal or not is returned. More sophisticated string comparison algorithms use heuristics and statistical models to determine the similarity between two strings, even if they are not exactly the same. These algorithms often use techniques such as edit distance, which measures the minimum number of operations (such as insertions, deletions, and substitutions) required to transform one string into another.

Another common technique for string comparison is n-gram analysis, where the strings are divided into overlapping sequences of characters (n-grams) and the frequency of each n-gram is compared between the two strings. This allows for a more nuanced comparison that takes into account partial similarities, rather than just exact matches.

String comparison is a crucial component of text comparison tools, as it forms the basis for determining the similarities and differences between texts. The results of the string comparison can then be used to generate a report or visual representation of the similarities and differences between the texts.

What is Syntax Highlighting?

Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors and integrated development environments (IDEs) that helps to visually distinguish different elements of a code or markup language. It does this by coloring different elements of the code, such as keywords, variables, functions, and operators, based on a predefined set of rules.

The purpose of syntax highlighting is to make the code easier to read and understand, by drawing attention to the different elements and their structure. For example, keywords may be colored in a different hue to emphasize their importance, while comments or strings may be colored differently to distinguish them from the code itself. This helps to make the code more readable, reducing the cognitive load of the reader and making it easier to identify potential syntax errors.

How Can I Conduct a Plagiarism Check between Two Documents Online?

With our tool it’s easy, just enter or upload some text, click on the button “Compare text” and the tool will automatically display the diff between the two texts.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Text Compare Tool?

Using text comparison tools is much easier, more efficient, and more reliable than proofreading a piece of text by hand. Eliminate the risk of human error by using a tool to detect and display the text difference within seconds.

What Files Can You Inspect with This Text Compare Tool?

We have support for the file extensions .pdf, .docx, .odt, .doc and .txt. You can also enter your text or copy and paste text to compare.

Will My Data Be Shared?

There is never any data saved by the tool, when you hit “Upload” we are just scanning the text and pasting it into our text area so with our text compare tool, no data ever enters our servers.

Software License Agreement

Copyright © 2023, Originality.ai

All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

  1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

  1. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Will My Data Be Shared?

This table below shows a heat map of features on other sites compared to ours as you can see we almost have greens across the board!

More From The Blog

Al Content Detector & Plagiarism Checker for Marketers and Writers

Use our leading tools to ensure you can hit publish with integrity!