We’ve all read them – sloppily written stories littered with basic spelling mistakes, inconsistencies, and poor grammar and punctuation.

With the best will in the world, while you may believe you have written an award-winning masterpiece, there’s always room for improvement no matter how good you think it is.

And with tighter deadlines and in the fast paced environment of the newsroom errors will inevitably slip through from time to time.

That’s why it’s critical to hire a top quality editor to check your work thoroughly and weed out any mistakes before it goes to print or up online.

After all, you wouldn’t submit your CV for a job application without first looking through it properly.

As soon as a story is made public and opened up to a wider audience any errors are likely to be magnified and the damage to you and your organisation’s reputation and credibility, not to mention your finances, can be long lasting.

In my role as a writer and editor, I take great care in first thoroughly researching and writing about my subject before going through the content multiple times, double checking my facts, spelling and grammar, and refining it until it is pitch perfect for my target audience.

Then, if it is a particularly complex or sensitive subject, I will leave it and come back and read it 24 hours later with a fresh pair of eyes and often ask a third party to look over it to make sure that it makes sense and is legally sound.

Choose someone who isn’t too close to you to review it, who has no conflict of interests and is willing to tell you exactly what they feel about it.

Then, print off a copy of the final draft and read through it twice with a fine toothcomb, the first time checking for errors and the second time to ensure it makes sense.

Here are five benefits of following a rigorous editing process:

  • Ensures your written message matches what you are trying to say
  • Helps to condense and improve the efficiency of your writing
  • Questions your flow of thoughts and your logic
  • Tells you if your content is too technical or doesn’t make sense
  • Asks questions or presents an alternative perspective that you might not have considered

Get in touch

  • To find out how I can help with your writing, editing or research needs give me a call on +44 (0)7949 590213 or email alex@alexwrightjournalist.com