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Editing Guidelines

Writing and Editing Checklist: 25 Top Considerations

Every content writer and editor needs a checklist in their toolbox to revise and refine their writing. Here are 25 checks that will strengthen and polish your content for publication.

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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.

Ask any writer about the most essential part of writing, and you’re bound to hear about editing. 

Even as humans increasingly use AI tools to help generate text, editing remains a critical step before publishing. 

Whether you are writing or editing, this comprehensive checklist will help you review and refine your content to be accurate, readable, and engaging.

Key Takeaways (TL;DR)

  1. Writing and editing are two separate and equally important steps before publication.
  2. There are many details to consider. To catch everything and avoid extra work, take each stage one at a time.
  3. Review the content brief first, then move on to big-picture content edits, technically focused copy edits, and stylistically oriented line edits.
  4. Proofread last and follow up with a quality check.
  5. Publish with confidence, knowing your content is clear, accurate and engaging.

Discover a suite of best-in-class editorial tools with the Originality.ai Grammar Checker, AI Checker, and Content Optimizer.

1. Writing and Editing Are Separate Processes

Even if you are writing and self-editing, it’s best to keep the two processes separate. 

Writing is a creative, idea-generating process. Turn off the inner editor as you write, so you don’t slow down the flow of words to the page. 

Once you have a complete draft, it’s time to start your first read-through and dig into content editing, copy editing, line editing, and proofreading. 

That said, the more you edit for yourself or others, the more your writing will improve through experience.

2. Take Editing One Step at a Time

From big-picture elements to tiny grammatical details, there is much to consider when writing and editing. Too many to take on at once. The beauty of having a checklist is that you don’t have to try to do everything at once. 

Look at each element separately without getting distracted by other parts of the process. 

For instance, if you are looking at SEO keyword density, don’t get caught up in a misspelling or comma splice. Focus on each step, completing each stage of edits before moving on to the next. 

3. Review the Content Brief

If you have a good content brief before you start writing, you can also use it to help guide you at the start of the editing process. A comprehensive content brief can serve as a checklist of sorts to target many of the same areas we’ll focus on below.

4. Consider Your Audience

The target audience is the first thing to consider as you get writing, as well as what to look for in the initial editing process.

Before you focus on the structure and development of your content, gauge whether your messaging is targeted to your audience and what they are looking for. 

During editing, if you realize this is off, it’s the first thing you need to correct before moving any deeper into editing.

5. Confirm Search Intent and Target Messaging

Now, it’s time to consider your topic. 

  • Is it in line with your audience’s search intent? 
  • Does it align with your content strategy? 
  • Does it address a pain point or help solve a problem for your target audience?

Before you start digging into how well it does these things, just confirm whether it’s addressing them. 

6. Review for Structure

Look over the content to make sure it follows the basic rules of your brand’s format. 

If you are editing a blog article:

  • Does it have a clear introduction and conclusion? 
  • Are your headings and subheadings formatted correctly? 
  • Does it consistently follow any required brand-specific guidelines?

7. Organization and Logic

When you do a read-through, is the information easy to follow? Does anything need to be rearranged to make the messaging clear for readers? 

8. Readability and Scannability

Speaking of clear messaging, do other aspects of the writing address readability? Look and correct for:

Is the article scannable? Can a reader quickly scroll through the article to determine what it is about? 

9. Quality and Depth of Information

Now, it’s time to dig into the content itself:

  • Is the information relevant and comprehensive? 
  • Is it fresh, interesting and engaging? 
  • Is the coverage better than that of competitors on similar topics?
  • Is the information complete, concise and targeted at humans, rather than search engines?

Get tips on creating high-quality people-first content.

10. Clarity of Ideas

Once you’ve established that the organization is solid and contains a depth of valuable information, consider whether the ideas come across as clearly as possible. Would some different word choices or sentence rearrangements help crystallize ideas or make them shine through?

11. Flow

Separate from the organization, logic, and clarity of the information itself, evaluate the overall flow of the language. Is there a smooth rhythm of words and sentences to engage the reader? 

12. Brand Voice

Is the writing recognizable as belonging to your brand, and does your brand’s personality come through?

Learn about developing brand voice guidelines.

13. Optimize for SEO

If you’re writing, it’s essential to know which keywords and phrases are targeted for the piece you are writing. Either you will do the keyword research needed to determine what words to optimize for, or perhaps they’ve been provided in the content brief. 

During the editing process, you’ll check through the document to assess your content's optimization.

Whether you do this manually and adjust the content on your own or use a Content Optimizer, now is the time to optimize for SEO.

14. Fact-checking, Resource Credibility and Accuracy

In this phase, you put on your researcher’s hat and check every link, source and statistic. You can do an internet search or choose an automated fact-checker. No matter how you do it, double-check the following:

  • Basic facts: dates, locations, names 
  • Data: statistics, percentages, numbers
  • Sources: credibility, authority, permission, citations
  • Quotes
  • Links

In addition to verifying accuracy, consult your organization’s style guide and rules for incorporating external information into your content. 

15. Plagiarism and AI Detection

It’s beneficial to use a tool to check for plagiarism to avoid duplicate content or even copyright issues

Then, check for AI-generated content as well. Google recently released updated Search Quality Rater Guidelines, which advise raters to classify content that is all or mostly AI-generated and doesn’t provide unique value as ‘lowest.’

So, to avoid Google penalties, it’s best practice to review content for AI.

16. Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling

Having writing that is technically sound is essential to the professional image you want to express through your content. Try the Originality.ai AI Grammar Checker to catch typos and grammatical errors so you can publish with confidence.

17. Engagement

Before moving on to line edits, consider whether the content is engaging. Will a reader find it entertaining and informative? Is there anything that could be added or removed to enhance reader engagement?

18. Syntax: Sentence Formation

Once the edits relating to substance and mechanics are addressed, you can move on to the stylistic refinement of line edits, beginning with each sentence. Syntax refers to how words are arranged to make sentences. Is your syntax good? Does each sentence read well and make sense? 

19. Active Voice

Active voice tends to be clearer and less wordy than passive voice. Using active voice is also an important element of good readability. Rewrite as much passive voice as possible.

20. Word Choice

Read your content aloud and notice when word choice interrupts flow or impairs style. If you haven’t eliminated all jargon or complex language, this is a good time to do those things.

21. Wordiness

Read the content for clarity. Remove any excess wording or fluff, and ensure your messaging comes across clearly and concisely.

22. Repetition and Redundancy

Reword or remove unnecessary repetition or overuse of the same words or phrases. 

23. Style and Tone

Read the content to ensure consistency in overall style and tone. Adjust any sections or headlines that detract from that consistency.

24. Proofreading

Proofreading is the final step in your writing and editing journey! In this phase, you look for typos, extra spaces, errors in capitalization, broken links, and any other mistakes and inconsistencies that have found their way onto the page. 

25. Quality Check

After you’ve made every round of edits, ask a colleague or friend to be a fresh set of eyes on your final piece. This is your chance to get an outside perspective and tidy up anything out of place. 

Final Thoughts

Once you’ve completed the checklist, you can publish your content knowing that it is clear, engaging, and polished. 

Streamline your editorial process with a best-in-class suite of content quality tools, including the Originality.ai AI Checker, Plagiarism Checker, Fact Checker, Grammar Checker, and Content Optimizer.

Then, discover more writing and editing best practices:

Melissa Fanella

Melissa Fanella is a writer, editor, and marketing professional with over 15 years of experience in content and messaging for businesses and nonprofits. Her expertise is in crafting authentic, people-first content that is compelling and engaging for audiences and positioned for business goals.

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…

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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

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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.

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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!

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