How do you edit and proofread with other digital professionals?

1 Use a style guide

A style guide is a set of rules and standards that define how your content should look, sound, and function. It covers aspects such as tone, voice, grammar, punctuation, formatting, and branding. A style guide helps you and your team create consistent and coherent content across different channels and platforms. It also saves you time and hassle when editing and proofreading, as you can refer to it whenever you have a doubt or a discrepancy. You can use an existing style guide, such as the AP Stylebook or the Chicago Manual of Style, or create your own based on your brand's identity and goals.

2 Choose the right tools

There are many tools and apps that can help you edit and proofread your digital copy, such as Grammarly, Hemingway, and ProWritingAid. Grammarly checks your spelling, grammar, punctuation, and readability and offers suggestions to improve your style, tone, and clarity. Hemingway highlights sentences that are too long, complex, or passive and shows you the readability score and grade level of your content. ProWritingAid provides comprehensive feedback on your writing, analyzing it for grammar, spelling, style, readability, plagiarism, and more. It also offers reports and suggestions to help you improve your skills. All these tools can be used as browser extensions, web apps, desktop apps or plugins for other platforms such as Google Docs or WordPress.

3 Share your feedback

Editing and proofreading are not only about correcting mistakes, but also about enhancing the quality and effectiveness of your content. That's why it's important to share your feedback with other digital professionals who are involved in the content creation process. You can use platforms such as Google Docs, Dropbox Paper, or Notion to collaborate and comment on your content. You can also use tools such as Loom, Miro, or InVision to record and share video or audio feedback. When giving feedback, remember to be constructive, specific, and respectful.

4 Test your content

Before you publish your digital copy, you should test it to make sure it works well on different devices, browsers, and screen sizes. You should also check how it looks and sounds with different design elements, such as images, fonts, colors, or animations. You can use tools such as BrowserStack, Responsinator, or Adobe XD to test your content. You should also ask for feedback from your target audience, such as through surveys, interviews, or user testing. Testing your content will help you identify and fix any issues or gaps that might affect your user experience or conversion rate.

5 Keep learning and improving

Editing and proofreading are not one-time tasks, but rather ongoing processes that require continual learning and improvement. To sharpen your skills, you can read and analyze other digital copywriters' work, such as blogs or social media posts, to learn from their techniques, strategies, and mistakes. You can also take online courses or join online communities to network and learn from other digital professionals. Furthermore, platforms such as Udemy, Coursera, Skillshare, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Reddit offer plenty of free or paid resources to help you hone your digital copywriting, editing, and proofreading skills. By following these tips and tools, you can collaborate more effectively with other digital professionals and create high-quality content for your audience.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?