Great Editing Paves the Way for Readers to Love You

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One of my favorite quotes related to editing comes from Dark Jar Tin Zoo in his book “Love Quotes for the Ages. Specifically Ages 19–91 .”

Making love to me is?amazing. Wait, I meant: making love, to me, is?amazing. The absence of two little commas nearly transformed me into a sex?god.

See that? Editing can turn you into a sex god or reduce your status to that of the average Joan. (No offense to people named Joan!)

That’s why I love great editing.

Great editing is recognizable to me when I finish a piece—whether a success story, blog post, scholarly article, or New York Times bestseller—and realize I didn’t notice the writing at all.

I didn’t have to stop to think about the writing. I just sailed through the piece — easy reading, easy learning.

That’s why great editing is so important.

Great editing elevates a not-so-great writer with brilliant ideas to the realm of a great writer with brilliant ideas, and it allows readers to read without interruption, without stumbling, without thinking about the act of reading.

Great editing helps your readers follow your train of thought from conception to completion.

It leads to content that fosters an exchange between you and your readers that builds reader respect and trust.

Isn’t that, inevitably, what all authors want?

Isn’t earning reader respect and trust what YOU want?

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Great editing keeps readers from hating your prose (and, sometimes, you)

As a reader, I groan when text hits me in the face with big-picture writing issues: Poor organization, lapses in logic, and shallow or missing evidence—the types of issues a good development or substantive editor will find.

One novel, in particular, comes to mind; in it, too many passages, especially after the halfway mark, began and ended without the author ever sharing which characters were doing the thinking, speaking, and acting.

Not only did I wonder who was doing what, but I also wondered what had happened to the editor!

The issue was so prominent in the latter half that I seriously considered tossing the book into my ever-growing dud pile, the home of unfinished books.

But the premise was strong. Despite my impatience and frustration, I wanted to know how the story ended.

(By the way, I used to work as a development editor at a technical publishing house, and one of our goals was to make the book's first half AMAZING and not worry so much about the latter half. Maybe that’s true in the world of fiction, as well.)

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Similar fails happen in marketing copy All. The.?Time.

Here's an example.

Suppose I’m interested in outsourcing business processes for my company, and you just happen to offer that service.

Here I am, visiting your website, interested in what you’re selling.

The homepage headline makes me frown:

[Company] unifies global brand.

. . .

Hey, mistakes happen. Not everyone is a good proofreader. It’s just one tiny mistake, although it is on the home page.

I decide to look further and click on a page for my industry.

[Our company] can deliver a variety of integrated multi-channel solutions to meet your needs.

“Integrated multi-channel solutions.”

I woke up this morning and told my husband, “You know, I think I’m ready to buy an integrated, multi-channel solution.”

AND…“meet your needs.”

Yeah. That’ll sell me.

Text like that is way too vague; it lacks details, evidence, proof.

I also bristle at using “needs” as a noun, a peeve of mine.

What needs are you talking about?

I decide to give your company one last chance and visit your About page.

I’m reading along at more marketing blather?… for more than 25 years…blah blah blah…on the front line…blah blah blah…

Wait.

What manner of nonsense is this?

We work around the clock, around the world, and with great determination to ensure every customer interaction is one that authentically matters.

Authentically matters?

Boom.

Suddenly a song rings in my head, and I feel like boogey-ing to an old Bee Gees song.

But instead of jive talkin’, I’m singing vague talkin’.

It’s just your vague talkin’

You’re telling me lies, yeah

Vague talkin’

You wear a disguise

Vague talkin’

So misunderstood, yeah

Vague talkin’

You’re really no?good

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Great editing keeps readers from becoming “error detectors”

Small bugaboos, usually caught by a proficient copy editor, also interrupt my reading, turning me into what tech writer Brad Connatser calls an “error detector.”

Connatser, in his May 2004 Technical Communication article, “Reconsidering Some Prescriptive Rules of Grammar and Composition ,” points out how prescriptive grammar—the grammar documented in English texts, dictionaries, and style manuals—can cause readers to stumble when it deviates from organic grammar—the grammar that people read, speak, and write in their everyday lives.

Why is this a problem? Connatser explains.

“The danger of violating organic grammar is the unintended shift in rhetorical roles from ‘reader’ to ‘error detector.’ Once a reader becomes aware of the reading process, he or she is likely to become more critical. Finding a few errors could set off a counterproductive shift in the rhetorical role of the reader.” (p.?265)

That shift Connatser describes?

It happens to me all the time and, I bet, to you.

Sometimes, I find myself in the role of error detector because the writer breaks prescriptive grammar—or the rules:

• Words are misspelled.
• Verb tenses are all over the place
• The word “effect” is used when it should be “affect.”

Other times, weak content, as in the Vague Talkin’ example I shared, throws me into error-detector mode.

One error. One whack.

Two errors. Two whacks.

Three errors. Three whacks.

Ouch!

That’s it—I’m outta here!

I also get thrown into “error detector” mode when the writer deviates from organic grammar—or how people actually speak.

Consider the pompous a** who insists on writing “to go boldly where no one has gone before” instead of “To boldly go where no one has gone before,” simply because someone in the late 1800s decided that splitting an infinitive is the mark of an infidel.

By the way, if you’re not a word nerd/writer/editor, the words “to go” represent the infinitive verb form; to split that infinitive means to insert another word inside the form — to boldly go.

(For way more than you probably ever want to know — and way more than you’d think would be out there — about split infinitives, visit this Wiki page .)

The point is this: a great editor keeps your readers comfortably cruising along in reading?mode

Error detectors, be gone!

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Great editing helps you build trust with?readers

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I don’t know about you, but I always begin each reading journey with an open mind and a sense of expectation.

I’m always hoping for the best.

I’m not looking for trouble; I’m not looking for gaffes.

So when I stumble over errors, questions, and objections, I begin to lose my trust in the text.

And, if the errors continue, I ultimately lose my respect for the author.

Preventing that tragedy is the value of great editing.

Great editing keeps the reader from making that rhetorical leap from reader to error detector and buoys the hope the reader begins with.

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Hope is CRUCIAL to understand when writing content.

I wrote about hope on my website , speaking in terms of marketing ebooks.

Yes, people still read marketing ebooks. Yes, they do care. And despite the fact that my eyes glaze over when I open most ebooks, people still find them useful. Or, shall I say, people still HOPE to find them useful. That single word — HOPE — sums up my philosophy on ebooks (and on all content, really).

My philosophy is that, despite the crappy shape of many ebooks, people download them by the dozens because they HOPE. They hope to get useful nuggets. They hope to understand, in a deeper way, whatever topic the ebook covers. They hope to be inspired, to be motivated, to see themselves reaching new heights. And they hope to do so without having to trudge through walls of text, without having to struggle through bloated paragraphs thick with jargon, without having to feel the frustration of yet another ebook written without empathy for them in mind.

At least that’s how I hopefully approach each ebook I download–and I download a lot of them. But, in most cases, my hope turns out to be empty. In most cases, I get ebooks that make me feel like this:

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Can you relate?

Hope is the lever that drives reading, whether marketing ebooks, novels, or scholarly papers.

Editors understand this, and great editing slams that lever to the floor.

Of course, the same could also be said of great writing.

But when writing is simply good, or even when it is not so good, then great editing can lift it to heights it could never have reached on its own.

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Like what you just read? Two invitations

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First, if you have content you know in your heart needs editing, I invite you to DM me or schedule a complimentary call . I'll give you a preliminary assessment and let you know if and how I can help.

Second, if you're a marketer or business owner who needs ongoing editing help, consider bringing me on as a part-time, fractional editor. I'll help uplevel your company's writing on an ongoing basis. I can also help you choose a major style guide to follow, develop your own style guide, and create an editorial calendar to keep your content engine humming. If you're interested in this option, same thing: DM me or schedule a complimentary call .

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