12 Editorial Skills You Need to Become a More Efficient Editor

I consider myself a good editor, but I only got to where I am today by practicing my editing skills.

Being a good editor is a muscle that needs to be honed.

In this article, I’ll cover how you can improve your editing skills using 12 strategies I used (and still use) to edit more efficiently while maintaining the integrity of the original author’s words.

I edit everything I write for the HubSpot blog myself. I also run Breaking the Blueprint, a blog column that primarily publishes content from external contributors whose writing I need to edit.

The editing skills I have acquired help me ensure that my writing and that of outside authors is good and helpful to readers like you. Let’s go over some of my best practices.

12 ways to save time when editing a text

1. Find a quiet place to edit.

Don’t try to do your editing in a meeting or in the presence of chatty colleagues.

Research shows That multitasking like this can cause us to be much less effective at our work and can increase errors and stress. And if you edit something, try it catch You should therefore carry out these errors particularly carefully.

Instead, I suggest finding a place where you can focus on what’s in front of you. When working through a text that requires more than a few hours of careful editing, block off uninterrupted periods of time with small breaks in between (the Pomodoro method).

Since it It can take 23 minutes to get back on track After you receive a notification, you might consider turning off those annoying email and social media notifications or putting your phone on airplane mode to really focus better.

2. Make sure the topic aligns with your content strategy.

You may be tempted to get to the core of the piece and begin careful editing immediately.

As editors, it’s important for us to put the content in context before diving into the details.

First, take a quick look at the working title and main ideas of the article. Think for yourself:

• Does this topic fit our content strategy?
• Will our readers and buyer personas care?
• Does each section flow naturally into the next?

If you’re concerned that the article isn’t about a topic that might interest your readers, consider how you can adjust the angle.

You should also think about how the article fits in with what you’ve written in the past – especially if the article is a blog post.

Search engines like Google may see the second post as duplicate content and penalize you when searching.

Even if Google doesn’t consider duplicate content as duplicate content, competing for keyword rankings with another post from your own blog will hurt your SEO strategy.

The questions I want to ask here are:

• Have we covered this topic comprehensively in the past?
• Does this provide a new angle and perspective?

If both answers are yes, you might consider updating and republishing the original draft.

3. Read the content and ideas first, then the grammar.

I recommend reading through the entire piece before making any detailed changes. This will help you think about it holistically and identify opportunities for improvement.

This may seem like I’m adding time here, but trust me, this will save you a lot of time and pain in the long run. If you’ve ever started editing a piece line by line only to realize that it needs a complete restructure, you know what I mean.

The key takeaway here is recognizing when the piece needs more work from the author.

“Sometimes a writer will submit an article before it’s ready to be edited,” said Corey Wainwright, HubSpot website CRO strategist and copywriter at HubSpot.

“If you learn to recognize these occurrences, you can save a lot of time because otherwise you’ll just start rewriting the text, which isn’t helpful to either of you.”

Ginny Mineo, former marketing blog manager at HubSpot, agrees: “Your job as an editor is to preserve your writer’s voice while ensuring it meets your quality standards.”

If you notice that the text is not easy to read, the introduction needs to be clarified, or the article does not contain enough points to meet your quality standards, I recommend that you send the feedback to the author.

It will be more productive than changing everything around you.

If the piece requires excessive editing help, the author’s text may not be appropriate for your publication – and you’ll save a lot of time if you tell the contributor directly.

4. Look for places where the author can fill in the gaps.

Aside from providing more comprehensive feedback, you should also read through the article to identify smaller improvements where you may need (or need) the author’s help.

Here are some questions I ask myself:

• Are there any structural inconsistencies in the piece? For example, if they include an example in every section of the piece except one or two, you might ask them to come up with one for each of those sections.
• Are there points that need more, more or better evidence? Statistics and data can increase the quality of your content and make it more interesting for readers.
• Are there any citations missing from sources? This is a big deal.

As you read, make notes about these points in a draft email to the author. When you’re finished, make sure you clean up the notes so they’re understandable.

5. Bookmark helpful websites for quick access.

Once the content, ideas, and structure of the piece are finalized, you can get down to business.

Here I would like to save some websites for your reference. Here are the ones I prefer.

6. Keep useful code snippets handy.

In addition to bookmarking helpful websites, it’s also a good idea to have any useful HTML snippets or other code snippets that you normally use easily accessible.

For example, you could use specific code to include a featured snippet module in your CMS.

To simplify this process, I save code snippets in a document. When it’s time to add them to the source code, I simply go to the note, copy the code, and paste the snippets as needed.

Here’s a detailed introduction to HTML so you can learn helpful coding hacks.

7. Read the piece out loud.

Even though this tip is towards the end of my list, it is one of my favorite editing methods.

Why? It’s great for detecting errors. I’m much more likely to find clumsy sentences and other things when reading aloud.

Bestselling author David Sedaris Fast Company said He uses this verbal approach to refine his writing: “I used to hate when a book came out or a story was published, and I’d think, ‘D-, how did I not understand that?’ But you almost always notice it when you read aloud.”

By reading out loud, you can catch these mistakes on the first try and save time later.

8. Use Find and Replace to quickly fix common errors.

We all have words that throw us off, no matter how long we’ve been writing or editing.

Think about it: What mistakes do you make when writing or editing? What things do you tend to miss?

As you edit, you can perform a “find and replace” before publishing to catch any errors that fell through the cracks. It’s a quicker way to polish a piece than searching manually.

To perform Find and Replace, click Ctrl + F on a PC (or Command + F on a Mac), enter your problem word or phrase and click Search.

9. Do a final check of Microsoft Word.

It doesn’t matter how carefully you read a piece of writing: mostly you will Use spell check to find additional errors you would otherwise miss.

I recommend pasting the content into Microsoft Word for final review (length permitting). If you prefer another writing software with spell checking, use that. This is also the case if you can paste it into a tool like Grammarly or Hemingway Editor.

Then you can go through it and assess any red or green wavy lines you see.

10. Go back and then come back.

Sometimes I’ve been working on a piece for so long, whether my own or someone else’s, that everything starts to sound bad.

For me, this is a clear signal that I need to step back, rethink and come back with fresh eyes. How long you “stand back” depends on your preferences. Sometimes I step away for a few hours; Sometimes I don’t even look at it for a few days.

When I come back to it, it’s easier for me to see everything that needs editing because I haven’t read the same sentences over and over again.

My recipe for success is to combine this tip with the previous one: taking a step back and then reading it out loud as the first step when I come back.

11. Recognize when the content is good enough.

I know as well as any editor that it’s hard to let go of perfectionism. However, it turns out that while perfectionism is helpful in certain contexts, it can become a major hindrance to productivity.

There is always something you can do to improve a text. By “done” you might think of spending every minute improving, polishing, and refining a piece until it’s perfect.

But what are you sacrificing by making additional, smaller improvements? And are these sacrifices realistic? Are they worth your time? At some point you have to ask yourself: “When is “good enough” good enough?”

Of course, knowing the threshold for “good enough” is easier said than done. Here is a helpful formula to give you some guidance:

1. The piece successfully solves the problem, addresses the need, or conveys the intended message.
2. It is clearly and clearly aligned with the brand.
3. The quality of the work matches or exceeds the standard of previous work.
4. It has been thoroughly yet objectively reviewed by other qualified individuals.
5. The final decision on preference was in the hands of the creator.

Make sure you complete the most important editing and proofreading tasks. Then when you’ve refined a piece to the point where you can move on, just keep going.

12. Have this checklist handy before publishing.

Before you hit publish, it’s time to double-check that you’ve checked all the boxes.

Although this may seem like another extra step, remember that this is a time investment that will save you from having to return to the piece later to make changes and adjustments.

Therefore, use this online checklist for editing and proofreading during your final review. Feel free to add to the list as there may be additional steps to your process.

Ultimately, being an effective editor requires focus, attention to detail, and the ability to know when to stop. With this list at your disposal, you will be better in no time.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in April 2016 and has been updated for completeness.