Understanding Content Editing: Roles, Types, and Best Practices
When a writer creates the perfect piece of content for your organization, that's only the start of the copywriting and editing process! A talented editor makes that content even better, leaving you with a finished product worthy of placing on your website, blog, or social media profile.
Though the term 'copyediting' is used to refer to manually reviewing a finished piece of content, there’s so much more to it than that. Different types of editing serve a unique purpose in the content development process, with each one benefiting your organization. Familiarize yourself with each form to understand what you can handle and when you might benefit from partnering with a professional and reliable editing service like Scripted.
What Is Copyediting?
While you may hear the term "editing" and think about correcting spelling errors and other mistakes, "copyediting" goes above and beyond, like checking the accuracy of the information the author is conveying or considering the overarching themes within a fiction manuscript.
As NY Book Editors puts it: "Copyediting is the process of checking for mistakes, inconsistencies, and repetition. During this process, your manuscript is polished for publication. Contrary to popular belief, the copyeditor is not a glorified spell-checker."
A copyeditor is one of the most complete, meticulous, and involved partners a content creator can have. To the point that most website owners may not need one. Instead, you might be searching for a "line editor," who simply goes line-by-line to correct grammatical errors and doesn't really look at the bigger picture.
What is Content Marketing and Where Does Editing Fit In?
Content marketing refers to a strategic marketing plan designed to create and share valuable relevant content for a target audience. Today's demands for long-form content and interesting materials mean that business owners must be engaged in the process of content marketing regularly.
Plenty of them turns to freelance writers to ensure that their process or their products that their deliverables are created and published on a timely basis, and with accurate and helpful information inside.
A freelance writer will usually help the company draft its content marketing deliverables, be that from scratch or using a content brief. The company would then use a content editor or copy editor they’ve partnered with either in a contract capacity or in-house. These are all different roles, although they can sometimes be mixed. Of course, a freelance writer should still turn in a polished piece that requires minimal edits, but it’s a good idea to separate the final editing from the freelance writer’s role.
Benefits of Hiring a Professional Editor
Editing and proofreading are key components of the overall writing process. Everyone makes mistakes, even professional writers. Regardless of the size of the piece, it should be reviewed by an editor before it has been published. The published work looks more polished and professional when it’s been edited properly, and it also helps to engage readers more effectively.
Sometimes that fresh set of eyes can help to identify mistakes that slipped by others. on bigger projects, such as book publications, it's common for the editing process to include four or five rounds of revision as a result.
Professional editors provide many benefits to those involved in content marketing, including bullet a unique perspective on the overall content bullet, ability to make the writing better to become more accessible to readers bullet ensuring no minor mistakes compromise the effectiveness of the final published piece.
The word editing, however, is a broad term that means different things to different people. various levels of editing might be required depending on the depth and length of a process, the depth, and the length of a project.
Content editing and copy editing are actually two different skills and could be provided by different freelancers. Both copy editors and content editors will look at the document in full line by line and frequently will use a tool such as Track Changes to ensure that the recipient of the document is aware of the changes that were made.
Furthermore, both of these parties might insert comments when something is unclear, or when they have made a change to the document that they are not sure the client will accept. However, the editing process means that content editing and copy editing actually occur at different stages, and therefore the skill sets are different and usually come from two different people.
Understanding the Roles
What is a Content Editor?
A content editor is a professional editor who looks at the writing from a big picture perspective. On a subject such as a book, for example, a Content Editor might focus on things like plot development, the overall dialogue, factual mistakes, the organization of chapters, and any inconsistency in the plot. Feedback provided by a content editor on a project like this can include suggestions that certain passages be completely rewritten or omitted and help with things such as plot development.
On shorter projects, a content editor will make suggestions for reorganization, reduction of repetitiveness, clarification of issues that are still vague, and more. The editor thinks about how this fits into the bigger strategy, which persona the piece is aligned with, and how well it fits the brief and overall goals.
A copy editor, however, is frequently used later in the process and dives into a greater level of detail as a result. By the time the piece reaches the copy editor, the freelance writer has likely already done one round of revisions based on the content editor’s feedback.
What Is a Copy Editor’s Role?
A copy editor focuses on the nearly-final document, be it a one-page blog or a full-length book, at a closer and more technical level. This is usually the final proof of a piece before it is published to ensure that things such as grammar, spelling, and punctuation are all accurate. A copy editor will review for things such as:
- Grammar
- Word usage
- Flow
- Punctuation
- Spelling
A professional copy editor might leave comments in the document but is more likely to directly edit the document itself and ensure that it has been fully polished before being submitted for publication. This is why copy editing is usually the last phase in the process because it ensures that bigger picture issues such as reorganization of text or chapters do not have to be revisited do not have to be completed more than once.
The use of a second person in the copyediting role is very common because of the fresh perspective and unique set of eyes that this person can bring to the project likely catching mistakes that might not have been noticed at previous rounds of editing.
Different Types of Editing
1. Proofreading
Proofreading, sometimes called mechanical editing, is the process of checking the grammatical accuracy of written content. It involves ensuring all spelling, capitalization, syntax, punctuation, formatting, noun-pronoun agreement, verb usage, word usage, and sentence structure is correct. That can improve the credibility and authority of your content, encouraging readers to come back for more!
Proofreading offers more benefits than using a spellchecker. Super-talented copyeditors look 'under the hood' of content to identify writing inconsistencies and ensure no grammatical mistakes or typos embarrass your organization. You might use a free tool like Grammarly or ChatGPT to proofread your content, but the results are not the same. A human proofreader will manually review your piece of writing, word by word, and improve readability, helping you reach your content marketing goals.
Proofreading might involve:
- Identifying commonly-made grammatical errors in content
- Manually correcting content
- Making sure content uses the right English
- Sending content back to copywriters for grammatical revisions
While sometimes neglected, proofreading is a critical step in the content creation process because it improves your reputation with an audience. Even one or two errors might cause a reader to question the validity of your work, but an experienced copyeditor can catch these mistakes before you publish your content.
If you're not fluent with the rules and mechanics of grammar, it's best to have a professional editor painstakingly review your writing before publishing it. But, if you insist on ‘proofing’ your own work, it can be helpful to follow tips such as printing your written draft and reading it aloud to spot errors.
2. Line Editing
When most people talk about copyediting, they likely mean line editing. This process involves reviewing a piece of content as a whole, considering its tone, accuracy, clarity, consistency, and overall effectiveness. Line editing helps ensure a content piece’s argument and main points are clear, well-supported, and match your house style. This process also makes sure content adheres to style guides such as the Chicago Manual of Style or the Associated Press (AP).
When line editing, you can take two approaches. If you decide to line-edit your work, it's best to step away from it for a few days and then read through it again with a clear mind. Alternatively, you can utilize a copyediting service like Scripted to provide an unbiased critique from a third party and ultimately make your piece stronger.
Think of line editing as an art, not a science. While free tools like Grammarly can identify inconsistencies in word choice, phrasing, and overall tone, only a human copyeditor can ensure a piece of content adheres exactly to your brief and stylebook, line by line. Unlike digital tools, these professionals have interpersonal skills and know how to enhance the flow and pacing of written content so it really resonates with your readers.
3. Fact-Checking
Fact-checking is a more straightforward type of copyediting. It ensures all facts are accurately represented and appropriately attributed according to the publisher's style requirements. While fact-checking services exist, you can fact-check your content by revisiting referenced works to double-check accuracy and add citations before publishing. However, this process can be labor intensive and prevent you from completing other business tasks.
Fact-checking is critical in the copyediting process because it prevents your organization from spreading misinformation to audiences. Not fact-checking claims you make in content pieces could jeopardize the reputation of your business and impact the search engine optimization (SEO) of your articles. Google, for example, favors content with reputable sources, such as credible news articles, government organizations, peer-reviewed research studies, and whitepapers.
A recent copywriting trend is the rise of AI-generated content like that created with ChatGPT. However, this tool can't verify information like a human copywriter or editor can, resulting in your content lacking credibility. Using a professional copyeditor to remove factual errors and check information with authoritative sources will improve your content marketing objectives and ensure your content is error-free.
4. Rewriting
Sometimes a result of line editing, rewriting involves reconstructing a portion of a written piece. It might be a copyeditor’s job to rewrite sections of content by removing outdated information, replacing existing sentences with new ones, and ensuring content matches your intended style and tone. A content writer might rewrite an entire article if you want to improve SEO, change the perspective of a piece, or make content more relevant to audiences after a recent business or industry development.
If you're facing a rewrite, it can be helpful to leverage an outside party to provide a fresh outlook and approach to the piece. A good copyeditor will restructure certain portions of your content so it meets your exact requirements, helping you create content that appeals more to your readers.
Content rewriting might involve:
- Changing words and sentence structure to improve content without changing its original purpose or intent
- Adding a new keyword or series of keywords to the existing content so it ranks higher on search engines like Google
- Improving tone, grammar, syntax, and executing other copyediting jobs
- Adding tables of content, page numbers, bullet points, and other aesthetic elements to existing content pieces
The best content editing platforms might provide you with a document that shows edits made to your original content so you can track changes.
5. SEO Copyediting
When writing for the web, it's important to write and edit your copy for search engine optimization. That means identifying the keywords your target audience is searching for — Scripted and other content editing platforms can also help with this process — and incorporating those words or phrases regularly and naturally throughout the copy.
Whether you are optimizing content for search engines for the first time or have intermediate knowledge of SEO, a copyediting platform like Scripted can transform your search rankings on platforms like Google. That can help you attract more people to your website or blog, increase brand awareness, and target potential customers with your products and services.
While they don't necessarily provide a direct copyedit, SEO copyeditors like Scripted’s freelancers can help with other SEO measures, such as ensuring your site links are up to date, your content is tagged appropriately, and you use the right heading types for search engine crawling (H1s, H2s, H3s, etc.). These professionals can also create meta descriptions, SEO titles, page titles, link slugs, alternative image text, social media posts, and other elements that can improve your search rankings.
SEO copyediting is important because 68% of all internet experiences start with a search engine. By optimizing your content, you can promote your offerings and establish yourself as a credible and authoritative content creator to a potentially global audience. Some of the world’s most successful companies use SEO copywriting and editing to move potential customers through their sales and marketing pipelines.
6. Content Refreshing
As a general rule, it's a good idea to refresh your content regularly. This can involve a simple content review to check for a stale or outdated tone of voice, inaccurate or changed information, and other out-of-date copy. Refreshing digital content can also help improve SEO results.
Say you own a real estate business and created a blog post a couple of years ago about the best places to purchase property in your market. That list might have changed considerably since you published the blog post, making it time for a content refresh. An experienced copy editor can take your original content and quickly remove outdated data and freshen up your content. That means you don’t need to write a new blog post from scratch.
While you can likely refresh your own copy, it can be very affordable to leverage a copyediting service for this work. The copyeditors can provide a fresh perspective on your messaging and quickly adapt your copy to a new tone of voice. You can also save time refreshing your content and focus your efforts on other areas of your content strategy.
Best Practices of Copyediting
If you are taking on a project as a copyeditor or you're hoping to hire one, here are the best practices that should be followed.
Continuously Advance Your Skills
Language is a fluid art form and one that requires the utmost accuracy given that the finest of details can completely change a sentence's meaning or perceived meaning. As a copyeditor, you must be aware of all the nuances that go into a language, both technically and socially.
Knowing whether "high-risk" should have a hyphen is one expectation of a copyeditor, but they're also required to know where punctuation marks go when using quotes and whether or not you can ever begin a sentence with a numeral. As such, copyeditors must constantly research and understand language and its usage as it evolves.
Be Meticulous With Details
Copyeditors are paid to find even the smallest mistakes, like the misplacement of an apostrophe or comma. As such, it's your job to nag about the little things and make possible dozens of corrections to a single page (or even a single sentence).
It's tedious and time-consuming work that often requires an editor to review a given paragraph a handful of times before it is ultimately considered proofed and polished. If you tire of redundancy or you have a hard time paying attention to the small details in a piece of writing, copyediting isn't the job for you.
Strive for Consistency
Another element of copyediting isn't just correcting what is not factual or grammatically accurate, but to see the "bigger picture" and ensure consistency through a given piece of work. Consistency comes in many forms, including whether or not certain words are capitalized, how you choose to punctuate certain interjections, and the terms used to describe specific events or experiences.
Meanwhile, it's also a copyeditor's job to check for and remove redundancy, ensuring that a reader never has the opportunity to finish a chapter and think, "I believe that point was made already." Both in fiction and non-fiction works, a copyeditor must ensure the writing flows nicely, following an enticing arch, and concludes with a well-rounded point.
Match The Voice
One of the most complicated and admirable functions of a copyeditor is to take over the polishing of a manuscript without impacting the author's voice. Rather, a copyeditor is tasked with adopting the voice and vision of the author to ensure they don't step on anyone's toes as they slide in to make corrections and changes.
Ideally, if a copyeditor sees the need for a major change (especially in a work of fiction), they'll collaborate with the author to work together on that change, rather than making the bold move of rewriting it themselves. Yet, for many clients, this is exactly what they want, so it's important to understand a client's expectations before you take on a project.
Benefit from Detachment
Authors often pour hours into their writing that will take only moments to consume. As a copyeditor, it's your job to take advantage of your detachment from the project to help the author shine. Where the author may struggle to delete a sentence, a copyeditor should be able to step in and say, "This doesn't add much. I think this paragraph reads so much better if you end on the previous sentence."
A copyeditor should use their detachment from the project to point out the strengths and weaknesses, making changes accordingly to help the writing shine. In other words, you should seek to be a partner in publication, going to great lengths to fuss over seemingly "small" things so that the reader enjoys the writing as much as possible.
How Scripted Helps You Achieve Your Copyediting Goals
You can save time, get the confidence that comes from partnering with an experienced professional and make sure your writing projects stay on deadline by using the services of a freelance writer and freelance editor.
When someone else outside of the company and the writer is involved as an editor, you’ll pick up on mistakes big and small that could have compromised the overall success of the finished product. Since an editor is trained to think about how this will sit with the audience and look either digitally or in printed form, this can greatly benefit companies that need someone with that unique perspective.
A freelance writer and editor might be needed as part of your content marketing team if you’re making a big push with your upcoming content or if you have a steady volume of projects. Working with freelancers means you can partner with someone as much or as little as you need, reaping all the benefits of a professional writer and editor every time you hit “publish”.