Content Editing: The Art of Revising From Basic to Brilliant

Content Editing: The Art of Revising From Basic to Brilliant

Reader Comments (20)

  1. Stefanie, I had to chuckle to myself, b/c I am editing an article written by one of my writers, and all I’m thinking is, you said that already . . . you said that already. Don’t get me wrong, she’s good, but sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to see how reiterative we’re being. Lovely reminder for us. Thanks.

  2. Hey,

    I must say this is a very informative article. Editing your content the right way is very important to gain the interest of your readers, and I think you mentioned almost all the points about editing. Thanks for sharing this article.

    Have a great day ahead.

  3. These are all excellent considerations when self-editing, and they’re also fine reasons to let someone else read your writing before your target readers see it.

    (“Someone else” can easily be you a few hours later. As long as you’ve all but forgotten what you wrote or meant to write, so that all you see is what’s in the writing itself, that’s a fine edit.)

  4. Hello Stefanie,

    Great tips over here 🙂

    Organizing our content and editing it in a wasy, so that more and more readers are being attracted to our blog.

    People to take interest in those article which are edited in a good manner. I love the concept of Unicorn vomit.
    Letting go the excessive sentences, which can be create over crowded niche.

    Thanks for the share.

    Shantanu.

  5. Hey Stefanie,

    This is indeed a good read, like your other article. Editing is an essential part of any kind of writing. As rightly said by Sarah Vowell,

    “I’m a big fan of editing and keeping only the interesting bits in.”

  6. Proofreading from the end of your document to the beginning can come in handy. It forces you to evaluate your words from a different perspective.

    I am going to start doing this! This looks like it could be very helpful!

  7. Wow, Unicorn Vomit… that’s a new one on me!

    It did bring to mind a blog post I read this morning – or tried to read, and gave up on. I’m part of a Facebook group which shares a blog post thread weekly. It’s been a great place to find new blogs, so I like to go through it. I clicked on one today that had a promising headline. The blog was cute and I liked the content that the author was writing about – but the writing itself was so jarring! It was excessively casual – run on sentences, lots of clumsy vernacular – very messy and disjointed. I like a casual writing style and I gave it a real shot, because I like to support bloggers. But I gave up after about four paragraphs. I reflected that the writer had basically turned me away from a blog I wanted to be interested in because of her poor writing. It’s a great lesson for me, though! I will be extra careful when writing my own blog posts.

    • Rachel, that’s a terrific example of why we discourage “unicorn vomit.” Casual writing can also be polished, so it doesn’t turn off interested readers. Thanks for sharing! 🙂

  8. Five simple steps and yet essential for your editing. Sometimes imagination runs wild but content is so unpolished that you lose credibility and further reading. Thanks for your ideas Stefanie!

  9. #3. Mop up “unicorn vomit” was my favorite, but the entire article is full of great advice! When I write, I tend to add a lot of extra words on my first pass through. I then go back and “clean up” areas that contain “unicorn vomit” by deleting entire sentences sometimes.

    I really enjoyed your simple 5 point list and I will use it in the future. Thanks!

  10. All great points. As a publisher that edits my own content while leaning on our editorial dept. for proofing, I have always found that sleeping on it and returning to an article the next day enables me to see my content from a new angle. its here i get the satisfaction and sometimes a good laugh at whoops: said that already!

  11. This is great. I’m trying to get our whole team involved in blog writing but most are not great writers. While I am not the best either, I have to edit them so this will be very helpful.

  12. A really great read. I am in the process of helping a colleague of mine create content for her updated website. Content is vital as it has to be pleasing to read, but also on the money as far as what you are trying to sell/say.

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