8 Types of Edits That Make You a Copy Ninja

Content creators dread editing as much as Mr. Krabs dreads spending a buck!

It’s easy to see why. Editing content isn’t all bells and whistles; it's frustrating and time-consuming.  

Have you ever wondered what editors do all day?

They definitely don’t sit and swivel in their chairs all day. They spend considerable time and energy perfecting copy through editing.

Since editing is part of content writing, it's about time you learned how to DIY. If you are serious about refining your content into a sparkling work that your readers can appreciate, you are in the right place.

Carry on and know the top types of edits you must know.

Main Categories of editing

There are two broad categories of edits:

Light Editing

Light editing ensures the copy is clear and concise while eliminating unnecessary words. It's not meant to be heavy editing involving rewriting or restructuring, but rather just ensuring everything reads well.

Copywriters usually do light edits, as they can spot common issues easily. This revision focuses on incorrect grammar usage, cross reference, and punctuation and ensures consistency in capitalization, hyphenation, spelling, and correct sequencing. 

Heavy Editing

Heavy editing is the most involved type of editing. It involves correcting grammar and spelling and ensuring that the content is clear and engaging. Heavy editing is necessary when you are working with an inexperienced copywriter.

Heavy editing focuses on boosting content flow, such as getting rid of jargon, triteness, and wordiness, boosting readability by smoothing transitions and sentence structure, and suggesting additions and deletions, among other heavy-duty work. 

Types of Edits

Now that you know the broader categories of copyediting let's dismantle them further.

Let’s do this;

1. Proofreading or Mechanical Editing

Proofreading should be the first and final check of the copy for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and style. 

It’s not a creative process—the copy is ready. It’s not a content edit—the copy may not be perfect, but it will be grammatically correct and use standard formats. Proofreading also doesn't involve making any changes to the text or rewriting chunks of text.

Proofreaders identify mistakes in style, such as “it's” vs. “its,” capitalization rules, like using caps for proper nouns, and other basic errors like typos or missing commas. 

This way, your content will be flawless, and you won’t put off your readers through pesky errors.

Zoey tip: Using proofreading and grammar check tools will save you a lot of editing time.

2. Line Editing

When you hear of content editing, this is what the big fuss is all about. Unlike mechanical editing, this type of editing emphasizes your entire document rather than the minute. 

It involves assessing your content:

• Accuracy
• Uniformity
• Clarity and straightforwardness
• Tone
• Effectiveness and ease of understanding

It's also common to add more research, references, and citations. A word from the wise, though, line editing is rigorous, lengthy, and time and resource-consuming. If you decide to undertake it yourself, take some time away from your content, take a walk, head to the gym or make your favorite dish and a cup o’ jo. Get back with a clear and rested mind.

While it demands all your energy and focus, the result will be Magnifique!

For instance, are you using that vs. which correctly?

3. Fact-checking

Picture this; you’ve created content about ‘X DIYs Methods Of Clearing Acne at Home.’ To finish your work, you fail to check all your facts and include some outdated methods. Worse, you publish the content in that state, misleading your audience.

Can you imagine the havoc your content could cause and the mistrust you’d earn from your audience?

You can create jaw-dropping or finger-licking content, but if you don’t have the correct facts to match it, it’ll be nothing but an attempt. 

Fact-checking is just that; verifying that all your facts are correct and up to date so your content has the intended effect on your audience. 

You can engage professional fact-checkers to go through your content. However, fact-checking should begin with you after you complete creating your content, right before you publish it. Revisit all references, links, facts, and overall text to ensure it's looking sharp. 

4. SEO Boosting

SEO boosting is the process of optimizing your content for search engines. SEO editing is the last stage in the SEO creation process, right before keyword research and SEO writing. 

The various processes under SEO editing include:

• Double checking your content has the right keywords relevant to your audience, especially long tail keywords. You can use free tools such as SpyFu, Google Analytics Ubersuggest, and SurferSEO, among others, to conduct a thorough keyword research
• Erase any signs of keyword stuffing
• Improve on search engine crawling
• Improve the content’s natural flow without any clutter or fluff
• Ensure the keywords are placed accordingly, such as in the meta description, title H1 Tags, subheadings, image alt text, and evenly throughout the text.
• Confirm the links are working and up to date, your site architecture is holding, and content tagging is on the right track.

In the end, SEO copy boosting will ensure your content ranks higher in search engine rankings. 

5. Content Rewriting

Content rewriting involves reworking a text to improve its quality and make it more effective. It requires skills similar to content proofreading but changes the words to better reflect the writer's message. 

It’s a difficult and time-consuming type of editing, as it involves changing a writer's copy to fit in with your company's overall tone and style. 

In the current writing world where AI has taken over the content creation process, rewriting introduces the human element the readers crave for. Last but not least, rewriting gives copy a new and fresher look, especially when done by a third party. 

6. Content Refreshing

Content refreshing is updating your content to reflect new developments in your field.  

But you are a content creator. You’d rather create new content rather than refresh the old stuff. 

While it's not your favorite pass time, It’s a good way to improve the quality of your existing content. If you're struggling with generating new content regularly, this is exactly what the doctor ordered. 

Heck, even Google’s John Mueller concurs with content refreshing. 

So, conduct a content audit to identify the diminishing content and go to town on updating links, tone of voice, facts and references, message, copy format, and making it mobile-friendly.

Refreshing content beefs up SEO and aesthetics, keeps your brand relevant, runs with current search algorithms, and gives content a fresh hot look. If you keep up with industry news and are aware of what’s going on around you, then this task will be much easier.

7. Developmental Editing

Developmental editing is the most comprehensive and time-consuming type of editing. While it's the most important as it allows for a refined piece of content, it might also cost you an arm and a leg. 

Developmental editors are skilled at finding ways to make your writing clearer, more concise, and more persuasive. They can identify vulnerable parts of the content and suggest ways to strengthen them. 

They can smooth out awkward wording and help you organize your thoughts so those ideas come across clearly in your writing. In addition, developmental editors are adept at analyzing your overall approach and identifying potential problems with that approach and potential solutions for fixing them.

The best developmental editors can do all this without changing your voice or style. However, suppose there are major issues with how your content reads, such as choppy sentences. In that case, they may recommend changes that involve rewriting an entire section or even revising the whole piece if necessary.

8. Evaluation Editing 

There comes a time in every copywriter’s work when it needs a deep dive into the bigger picture.

An evaluation edit involves an editor reviewing your content and critiquing your work. This type of edit analyses your content’s niche, story, tone, voice, quality, and other mechanics. It unearths the content’s structure, organization, and completeness.

It also establishes if the content is in tandem with the client’s guidelines.

Once the editor is done reading through the content, they create notes pointing out main points, areas of concern, and recommendations, including structural improvements.

Evaluation editing ensures your raw content doesn't content you a pretty penny for the other edits or attempt to publish unrefined content. Often, an evaluation editor might collaborate with a developmental editor to work on your content. 

Rule of Thumb With Copy Editing

Whether you are a content creator or editor, you must observe certain rules of editing. It doesn't matter your niche, tone, structure, message, or target market. You don’t want your audience to fall into the abyss with your content.

The rule of thumb with copy editing is:

• Completeness
• Consistency
• Concision
• Clarity
• Correctness 

These are the famous C’s for copy editing that every writer and self-editor should always follow.

Do You Need Super Edited Content?

The fact is copy editing is no walk in the park. Even the gurus of editing don’t look forward to going through thousands of words for editing purposes; they’d rather spend their lazy afternoons seeping their favorite brews in peace. 

To avoid the headache of copy editing, consider contracting expert copywriters for your work. Zoey Writers has a team of expert copywriters who'll breathe into your content through self-editing. They ensure your work is locked and loaded with all types of editing taken care of.

Need to know more? Don’t hesitate to contact us today. 

Also check out: Editing Guidelines for Editors: Top 9 Tips to Help You Edit Like a Pro

Photo by Ron Lach. Thank you Ron!