Quick Editing Checklist for Non Editors

Some of us are writers, some of us are editors and some of us are neither – very few are both. I have to admit to being a terrible editor, (fortunately I am married to a wonderful one).

If you don’t have the good fortune to know a great editor first hand, here’s a great little checklist.

Step One . Use your word processing software’s grammar and spell-check. I even use my email spell-check – I’m a good speller but not such a great typist. The grammar and spell-check function often catches incomplete sentences, confusing sentences, bad punctuation and of course misspelled words. It doesn’t however catch those pesky words which sound alike but are spelled differently.

Step Two. Use your "Find and Replace" feature and search for all of the Your and You’re words to make sure they’re correct. Search for the It’s and its to make sure they’re correct. Search for There, their, they’re and so on. The "Find and Replace" feature makes the job a quick and reliable one – you won’t miss a single word.

Step Three. Read it aloud. This process forces you to actually read your content rather than to skim it with your eyes. It forces you to be thorough. Quite often this is where you will catch the sentences which just don’t make sense and the other minor errors your word processing tools don’t catch. For example, I often repeat words in in a sentence. Spell-check won’t catch that but reading it aloud does.

Step Four. Macro Editing. Up to this point you’ve really been searching for the small stuff. Now it’s time to take one last glance at your content and make sure you have a beginning paragraph which introduces your topic, a body paragraph with at least three points to support your beginning paragraph statement and a summary or conclusion paragraph which wraps it all up. Kind of brings you back to your old Literature and writing classes doesn’t it?

Step Five. Double check formatting consistency. Make sure all your subheadings are formatted the same – if you’ve been bolding some and underlining others, make them consistent. Make sure all of your links work, all of your bullets or numbered lists have the same margins and so on. Polish the formatting so your content is easy to read and professional.

Take these five steps to keep your writing error free, polished, and professional. Happy writing!

Your Secret Successes

Today I have a quick exercise for you.  I developed it because I noticed many of my direct selling clients have a way of washing over many of their accomplishments.  They are too busy either 1) beating themselves up for missing a goal they set or 2) concentrating on “the next thing” to give themselves credit for their own successes.

So, take out a piece of paper.  Number 1-5.  As fast as you can write down 5 things you’ve done well or accomplished in the past six months.  Do not worry about whether they are “big enough” to write down or “worthy” enough to write down.  Just write down 5 successes or accomplishments.

Now, look over your list.  First I want to be the first to say “Well done!”.  I’d like you to say “Well done” to yourself, too.  And then I want you to take it one step further. 

Call a trusted friend and say “I want to celebrate somethings I’ve done.  I’m not looking for feedback other than a rousing “good for you”.

Now – your successes aren’t such a secret:) 

The celebration you’ve staged on your own behalf will buoy you to achieve “the next thing” or re-double your efforts to achieve that goal you missed. 

Give it a try – I’d love to hear your experience:)

Love & Success!
Sarah

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