I love to hear when a person, no matter what their skill set, decides to try their hand at writing. It makes me happy to know that a new member has joined the club. What I don’t love to hear, though, is a cavalier attitude towards editing.
The excuses that, “I’m not good at spelling and punctuation” or “that’s what editors are for, right?” sound like nails on a chalkboard to me. Because there is no excuse for publishing or submitting a sloppy draft, full of typos and grammatical errors under the mindset that it’s not important. Editing is very important. And for most writers, self-editing is the only type of editing our work goes through. Here is why self-editing is so important.
You don’t make the rules, but you have to follow them
If you want to be taken seriously as a writer, you have to follow the rules. No matter how great your writing is, a piece full of errors is going to make you look like an amateur. The casual reader may not catch your tiny mistakes, but if there are enough glaring errors, everyone with start to notice. And if you want to get paid for your writing one day, submitting sloppy work isn’t going to do you any favors.
That doesn’t mean you have to know everything. I don’t know anyone who knows everything about the English language from memory. There are so many rules, and even though we didn’t make them, we have to follow them.
Spell check alone is not going to catch everything. You may have spelled something right, but you could have typed in the wrong version of the word. Or you may have typed an actual word but not the one you wanted.
It’s also up to you to catch your punctuation errors. Punctuation errors are the violations that I find most in self-published books, blog posts, and any other self-edited piece of writing that I read. When they are made consistently, I know that it’s because the writer must not know the rules.
Bloggers and editing
Some bloggers may read this and think, “It’s my blog. Who are you to tell me how it should look?” There is truth to that. It’s especially true of those who just want their blog to serve as an online journal or a casual hobby.
You don’t need to be a professional writer in order to own a blog. That’s apparent in the range of quality that are seen in the blogging world.
But most bloggers want their blogs to look professional. They want to make money from their blog with advertisements and affiliate programs. Don’t you think those affiliates and professional writers want to work with bloggers who produce clean, professional content?
I realize that even the big websites have grown lax on their article edits. Ready any article on Yahoo sometime, and you’ll know what I mean. But they’re pumping out material constantly to keep up with the breakneck pace that the news produces daily. Is this a good excuse? No, but independent bloggers who don’t have those deadlines or content demands can afford to be more thorough.
Your average blogger does not appear to have a college degree in writing or English. They usually started their blog to document a certain interest or expertise. For others, English may not be their first language. So, they may not have mastered the mechanics that our complicated language entails.
Some may have always wanted to try their hand a writing and are just now getting started. They don’t have the knowledge or practice that a professional or lifetime writer has acquired. So, they need a little extra help.
Buying an editing service
Online editing services are popping up left and right for bloggers, journalists, or anyone who does a lot of writing. They claim to not only check your spelling and grammar, but they will also improve your writing.
I’ve used one of these services in the past, and they really are thorough and helping you to catch errors and offering ways to improve your work by pointing out words that you over-use, get rid of your passive voice, and shortening your sentences.
But it is still a machine. You still have to do the work to improve your writing. The program just calls certain things to your attention. It also doesn’t stop calling things to your attention. So, your writing will always looks marked up, even after you make changes, and it may misread your intentions and encourage you to incorrectly correct your work.
I recently came across a blog post that said it was edited by Grammarly, and I found five errors within the first paragraph. How could this be? I’ve never used Grammarly to know how their service works, but my thought was that the writer expected Grammarly to go through and fix everything with the click of a button. Clearly, it didn’t.
When in doubt, look it up
Like I said above, it’s impossible to know every rule of the English language and all of its intricacies. Back in the day, you needed to have a dictionary, encyclopedia, and thesaurus handy in order to look things up. Today, you have Google. Find a trusted source, and use it to look up everything that you’re questioning in your piece.
Even if you think you know something but there’s still a tiny bit of doubt, look it up anyway. No one is counting how many times you look up a rule while editing. They’re also not counting how many times you look up the same rule. I’m always looking up the same rules and how to use them properly in my writing.
The English language is especially tricky, and the rules vary by country and even region. Your own region’s accent might have you using improper sentence structures or slang words that you might think are used everywhere. Again, that may be fine depending on your writing voice and the nature of your piece, but it’s not going to fly if you’re writing professionally.
When to relax the rules
I’m not saying that everything you write and post has to be professionally edited. I also don’t expect a self-edited copy to be perfect. After all, self-editing is like trying to scratch your own back; you’re going to miss a spot.
Self-published authors don’t have the resources that publishing companies and book agencies have to produce clean work. And really, even they miss errors. Finding a spelling error or a word missing from a sentence in a book published by Random House or Penguin always gives me a sigh of relief. It proves that nobody is perfect.
So, I allow indie authors at least a handful of errors in their books. But if those errors are numerous and lazy, deserving of at least another full run through with a red pen, I can’t help but mention it in my review.
Still, I break the news gently, even when I have my reviewer hat on. Authors guard their books like they would their children, and I myself have become sensitive over nitpicky issues brought to my attention.
Also, if I find little to no errors in a self-published book, I make sure to note it as well. It doesn’t matter if the book was professionally edited or self-edited, the fact that the writer made the effort to thoroughly edit their work, it deserves the extra praise in my review.
I also turn the other cheek when it comes to most social media postings. A lot of that is done on phones with small keyboards, no edit button, and a fickle auto correct feature. The only time an error really bothers me is when it shows up on a weekly post that a group moderator or blogger reposts frequently and fails to correct in future postings.
Common mistakes
The most common writing mistakes that I find include:
- Misused Commas
- Misused Apostrophes
- Misuse of the words:
- Your/you’re
- There/their/they’re
- Were/where/wear/we’re
To help catch these errors, I’ve created a comma and apostrophe usage cheat sheet. You can download it here:
Comma and Apostrophe Cheat Sheet
This document lists some of the most common rules when it comes to using commas, apostrophes, and homonyms. Save it to your computer, or print it out, and post it near your desk to use as a quick reference.
Of course, there are many more rules than I can fit on the list, but you have the most common rules to store on your computer or print out to post near your desk. The more you look it up, the better you’ll get at knowing how to use them right the next time.
How many times do you edit your work before you hit publish or submit? What types of errors do you make the most? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Amen to this. I tend to stop reading if I see a lot of spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. I’ve read articles where it’s clear that people have put A LOT of thought and time into what they’re publishing, yet it’s still full of errors. Using an editing service, as you suggest, or something as simple as Grammarly can make all the difference. Thanks for posting.
Thanks! Yes, I agree that just because online publishing is so easy doesn’t mean that you should ignore basic writing mechanics because it’s not your forte or you don’t find it important. As uptight as it sounds, writers of all levels should still respect the rules.
Thank you for this. I try to review and edit twice. Once just after I write it. Then I walk away, clear my head, and come back and edit a second time. I think it’s important too.
Definitely. That’s a good rule of thumb for articles and blogs. Aside from catching mistakes, the more you edit, the better your writing gets as well.