9 ways professional editing provides value to your organization
Editors add value not only to the final product but also to everyone’s experience of a project by aligning the needs and expectations of the audience with the intentions of the writer and the objectives of the organisation
I’m always a little disappointed when I see the benefits of editing promoted as being ‘polished prose’ or ‘writing that shines’ and editing services promising to make text clear, correct, consistent and concise (or coherent, complete, comprehensible and compelling). I have nothing against shiny writing and I like the sturdy foundation for writing the Cs provide, but these benefits sell editing short.
While for fiction the primary goal of editing is good writing (though even then, the writing should entertain readers and make them think and feel), the purpose of producing all other types of content is not, generally, to produce good content for its own sake. And when the focus is only on the content, other reasons to seek professional editing are overlooked.
Most organisations understand the need for a tidy up before their written words go public, but they may not be aware how much value a deep clean can provide them with in the long run.
The list below presents nine ways in which good editing helps organisations. Some of the outcomes are realised through enhanced quality of the content after editing, while others relate to the support that working with an expert editor provides to a project team.
1. Editing safeguards your reputation
Occasional low-grade errors can detract from the professionalism of your content and in some cases be detrimental to an all important first impression, but readers will usually forgive you for them. They’ll start to get annoyed, however, if you’re providing them with inaccurate information, ambiguous instructions or unintentional bias. And if they feel you’re disrespecting their time and intelligence through sloppy argumentation, illogical transitions and rich seams of redundancy, you’ll undermine your credibility and erode your reputation. Reputation relates not only to external readers, but also to employees collaborating within your organisation; your communications team, for example, will feel more confident and motivated about promoting high-quality content from your programme staff.
2. Editing strengthens your organisational identity or brand
Editing contributes to the image your organisation projects and even the degree of relevance and authority it’s perceived as having. An editor can review content to ensure it aligns with your organisation’s goals and values and to rescue any key messages lost in noise. By improving readability, they can improve stakeholder experience. High-quality knowledge products build your clients’ and the public’s trust in you and help establish your organisation as a leader in its field. Communications materials that have the same voice and tone ensure your messages are always consistently conveyed to your target audience.
3. Editing helps you achieve your communication objectives
Whatever it is you’re asking of your readers through your words, from applying the knowledge you’re sharing to subscribing to your newsletter, chances are they won’t do it if your material doesn’t meet their expectations. Your audience is more likely to respond to your call to action if you capture their attention with content that’s well structured, well presented, easy to navigate and enjoyable to read. They’ll also find the time they invested in the content worthwhile, meaning they’ll be more likely re-engage with your organisation in the future.
4. Editing frees up your time
Staff in your organisation who aren’t trained writers or for whom writing isn’t the focus of their work might get stuck in communicating their thoughts on the page effectively. This takes their time away from doing what they have expertise in. A substantive edit done on an early draft will provide your staff with concrete feedback and guidance on direction, potentially reducing the number of subsequent drafts needed. A copyedit on the final draft will take efficiently care of the mechanics of the content (grammar, style, etc.). This takes the burden off your staff and helps them avoid feeling overwhelmed by the process of finalising the content.
5. Editing saves you money
Editing can save money through time by making the drafting process on a large project efficient and reducing the number of meetings held to discuss drafts. It can avoid extra costs like those for rush work by downstream suppliers (e.g. designers, printers) incurred because writers missed deadlines while trying to get everything in a document right by themselves. It can reduce the costs of translation and printing by reducing the size of a document. It can save the time and money involved in publishing an erratum or issuing a revised version by ensuring the text has as few errors as possible before it’s published in print or digital format. And it can avoid potential legal costs by spotting issues to do with copyright or libel. If your organisation sells services, editing can contribute to generating income, too, because effective and engaging content leads to good conversion rates and satisfied clients who will return, write positive reviews and spread the word.
6. Editing improves the performance efficiency of your processes
If your organisation produces training materials, guidelines or any documents that teach readers how to do something or provide instructions on how to undertake a process or procedure, achieving the desired results hinges on readers being able to follow what you’re saying. If instructions aren’t thorough or they generate confusion, readers will either perform the process anyway, with a poor-quality outcome, or request clarification from you – both scenarios wasting their time and yours. Employee productivity (in the case of your audience being internal) or client satisfaction (external audience) might fall. In an educational context, if your materials fail to inform and inspire, students won’t find it easy to learn.
7. Editing makes your future projects easier and more consistent
Even if your organisation has a house style guide, an editor will usually compile a style sheet for a large project or for multiple documents in a series to record decisions they made on the fine points of editorial style and presentation. This style sheet, which ensures consistency for the project, can also be used to expand the house style guide. The editor might also produce a template for formatting, author guidelines, standard email texts, or a spreadsheet for tracking dates and information. These and other by-products of editing are tools that could be used to streamline future work.
8. Editing improves your writing
Editors can coach inexperienced writers on a large or complex project from concept stage, providing them with advice on the craft of writing as well as helping them find an approach to getting words on the page that works for them. Later in the drafting stage, the changes and comments made by an editor during substantive editing and copyediting constitute feedback that can alert the content creators in your organisation to recurrent errors they weren’t aware of making. This feedback can also make them more aware of common writing pitfalls, giving them the opportunity to improve their skills. Writers do a lot of self-editing and revision, and many are highly effective at it, but they always get a fresh perspective on their work by having it edited.
9. Editing adds a skilled, knowledgeable, collaborative and supportive member to your team
Editors don’t just correct grammatical errors and provide a layer of security before you press the button to send your document to its destination. They help content creators distil their thoughts and ideas. Some editors studied or worked in another field (e.g. law, science) before training as an editor, so when working on documents in relevant subject areas can add great value in terms of the type of problems they flag and substantive suggestions for improvement they make. Many editors bring to the table a broad range of editorial and production skills, covering design and project management; some can provide advice in specialist areas like SEO and accessibility. Editors care and take care.