After days or even weeks of writing, you feel you have finally conquered the subject at hand and are ready to publish. Do you go ahead, with just a final proofread, or do you find someone else–maybe an editor–to look at your writing with a more objective eye?
To answer that question, it helps to understand what an editor does–and does not do–in the context of small business writing.
Let’s get the “does not do” part out of the way first. If you are afraid an editor will be super critical and make so many changes that your voice gets lost, know this: editors make suggestions, not demands.
We do not seek to confront, but to collaborate. Our goal is not to make you sound like us; it is to ensure you sound like you, but maybe with a little more polish and focus.
In short, an editor is not the boss of you.
We add notes and markups in your text, but we offer those scribbles and jots as points of consideration. Ultimately, you decide which changes you will reject and which you will accept.
So What Do Editors Actually Do?
Basically, it’s all about enhancing your voice and viewpoint and, through that process, boosting the impression you leave on readers. (It’s also about correcting mistakes; we do tend to be a little nitpicky about those kinds of things.)
Editors look at the flow of a document to ensure consistency and avoid repetition unless it is needed to bolster an argument, which is sometimes the case.
We also seek to clarify. This is where our objectivity is especially important. When you review your own writing on a subject you know a lot about, it can be hard to recognize when a point lacks clarity. With fresh eyes, we can identify and remedy anything that might impede readers’ understanding.
We make cuts when needed for length or to reduce repetition, but we do so judiciously. There’s no scorched-earth slash and burn; it’s about removing excess without losing meaning.
And, yes, we fix the things that really need to be fixed, like punctuation errors, spelling mistakes or incorrect usage, verb tense consistency, and subject and pronoun mismatches or “pronoun-antecedent agreement errors” as those in the know like to call them. Kidding. I do not use that term but threw it in here to underline that editors will take care of technical language issues–the things that sound wrong to most people even if they don’t know why.
And we do all of the above while being sensitive to stylistic choices. We’re not so beholden to rules that we obliterate style. It’s all about context and audience, something editors will discuss with you before they start.
Editors can also fact check, if asked. In reality, most of us do some form of that by default, like ensuring the correct spelling of names or verifying the titles of any person or published material you might reference. But some editors might even go deeper on fact checking as an added service.
An editor-client relationship can be a beautiful thing. Connect with me to learn more about how it all works.
Photo of printing press letters by Daniel von Appen on Unsplash.