{"id":61,"date":"2017-07-26T18:06:33","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T22:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverypublisher.com\/wiki\/?p=61"},"modified":"2019-09-09T17:59:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-09T21:59:02","slug":"editing-tips-for-tightening-your-copy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverypublisher.com\/wiki\/editing\/editing-tips-for-tightening-your-copy\/","title":{"rendered":"Editing Tips for Tightening your Copy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writers rarely spit out their\u00a0best copy<\/a>\u00a0on the first draft. (If you meet a writer who claims to have the secret for doing so, please let the rest of us know.) First drafts \u2014 and second drafts and sometimes thirds \u2014 exist to hash your ideas out on paper. After you\u2019ve revised\u00a0your book<\/a>, story, blog post or article until you can revise no more, you just hand it off to your editor to clean up, right?<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019d be ideal. But most of us don\u2019t have the luxury of hiring an expensive editor to review our personal blog post. And since procrastination is the writer\u2019s best friend, you probably don\u2019t have time to even ask a fellow writer pal take a quick peek for errors.<\/p>\n

And so, it falls to you to be your own editor. Is it really possible edit your own work when all the words you just finished writing are so precious? Yes! It can be done \u2014 and for the sake of making your writing stand out, it must be done. Grab your red pen, pull up your most recently saved draft, and get to work with these 25 tips to tighten your own copy.<\/p>\n

1. Cut long sentences in two<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I\u2019m not talking about run-on sentences. Many long sentences are grammatically correct. But long sentences often contain several ideas, so they can easily lose the reader\u2019s focus because they don\u2019t provide a break, leading readers to get stuck or lose interest, and perhaps the reader might get bored and go watch TV instead.<\/p>\n

See what I mean? If you spot a comma-heavy sentence, try to give each idea its own sentence.<\/p>\n

2. Axe the adverbs (a.k.a. -ly words)<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Adverbs weaken your copy because these excess words are not truly descriptive. Rather than saying the girl runs quickly, say she sprints. Instead of describing the cat as walking slowly, say he creeps or tiptoes. The screen door didn\u2019t shut noisily, it banged shut.<\/p>\n

Find a more powerful verb to replace the weak verb + weak -ly adverb combo.<\/p>\n

3. Stick to one voice<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sometimes it\u2019s necessary to use both first and second person, but that can be jarring for readers. For example, you might start your introduction talking about yourself, then switch halfway through the piece and start addressing the reader. Try to stick to \u201cI\u201d voice or \u201cyou\u201d voice throughout one piece of writing.<\/p>\n

And if you must switch, start with one and finish with the other. Don\u2019t move back and forth between the two. Your readers will get lost.<\/p>\n

4. Remove extra punctuation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A powerful hyphen here and a thought-provoking semicolon there can be effective. But a piece of writing littered with all sorts of punctuation \u2014 parentheses, colons, ellipses, etc. \u2014 doesn\u2019t flow well.<\/p>\n

Oftentimes, you can eliminate these extra pieces of punctuation with commas or by ending a sentence and starting a new one \u2014 and that makes your writing that much stronger.<\/p>\n

5. Replace negative with positive<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Instead of saying what something isn\u2019t, say what it is. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to make these mistakes in your writing\u201d could be better stated as \u201cYou want to avoid these mistakes in your writing.\u201d It\u2019s more straightforward.<\/p>\n

If you find negative statements in your writing that contain don\u2019t, shouldn\u2019t, can\u2019t or another such word, find a way to rewrite them without the \u201cnot.\u201d That will probably mean you need to find a more powerful verb.<\/p>\n

6. Replace stuffy words with simple ones<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Some people think jargon makes their writing sound smart, but you know better. Good writing does not confuse readers. If they need to grab a dictionary to finish a sentence, your writing has room for improvement.<\/p>\n

To get your point across, use words people are familiar with. The English language has thousands of words. You can certainly find a shorter or more common word in your thesaurus than a jargony one.<\/p>\n

7. Remove redundancies<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You don\u2019t need to say the exact same thing with two words. Did you catch the redundant words in that sentence? Here\u2019s a better version: you don\u2019t need to say the same thing with two words.<\/p>\n

Brand new, advance planning, basic necessities\u2026 the list of these common phrases is longer than this blog post. Check out\u00a0About.com\u2019s 200 Common Redundancies<\/a>\u00a0and then start snipping!<\/p>\n

Sometimes sneaky redundancies are separated by an \u201cand.\u201d If you say your sentences are straightforward and to-the-point, they are neither. You don\u2019t need both words. Your sentences are straightforward. Or, your sentences are to-the-point.<\/p>\n

8. Reduce prepositions<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Though prepositions (of, in, to, for, etc.) are helpful little words, they make sentences more lengthy because they cannot stand alone. Prepositions need lots of friends. By cutting the preposition and the words that follow, you can cut three, four or even five words. Sometimes a prepositional phrase can be replaced with just one more direct word, or cut completely.<\/p>\n

An easy way to cut prepositions is to look for opportunities to make something possessive. The car of your neighbor is really just your neighbor\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

9. Cut \u201cin order to\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You never need it. If you\u2019re going to the kitchen in order to make a sandwich\u2026 Your sentence could be tighter. Because you\u2019re really going to the kitchen to make a sandwich.<\/p>\n

That \u201cin order to\u201d makes it take a millisecond longer to arrive at the meaty part of the sentence, which means your story is dragging more than it needs to.<\/p>\n

10. Don\u2019t use \u201cstart to\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Did you start to walk the dog, or did you walk the dog? Is the car starting to roll down the hill, or is it rolling down the hill? \u201cStart to\u201d is a more difficult phrase to deal with than \u201cin order to,\u201d because sometimes you do need it. But more likely than not, you don\u2019t<\/p>\n

Rather than making \u201cstart\u201d the active verb, use the verb that\u2019s actually more active \u2014 like walking or rolling \u2014 to tell your story.<\/p>\n

11. Nix \u201cthat\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In about five percent of your sentences (total guess from the grammar police), \u201cthat\u201d makes your idea easier to understand. In the other 95 percent, get rid of it! \u201cI decided that journalism was a good career for me\u201d reads better as \u201cI decided journalism was a good career for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

12. Replace \u201cthing\u201d with a better word<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Usually when we write \u201cthing\u201d or \u201cthings,\u201d it\u2019s because we were too lazy to think of a better word. In every day life, we may ask for \u201cthat thing over there,\u201d but in your writing, calling anything a \u201cthing\u201d does not help your reader. Try to replace all \u201cthing\u201d or \u201cthings\u201d with a more descriptive word.<\/p>\n

13. Try really hard to spot instances of \u201cvery\u201d and \u201creally\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This is a very difficult one to remember. I almost never get it right, until I go back through my copy, and the word jumps out at me, and then I change the sentence to \u201cThis is a difficult one to remember.\u201d Because really, how much is that \u201cvery\u201d helping you get your point across?<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t make the task sound more difficult. Same thing with \u201creally.\u201d It\u2019s not a \u201creally\u201d difficult tip to remember. It\u2019s simply a difficult tip to remember. Got it?<\/p>\n

14. Make your verbs stronger<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cMake\u201d is sometimes used in the same way as \u201cstart to,\u201d in place of what could be a stronger verb. For example, I first titled this post, I wrote \u201c25 ways to make your copy stronger.\u201d When I re-read it, I realized the verb wasn\u2019t strong. I\u2019d used \u201cmake\u201d as the verb, when it doesn\u2019t tell the reader much at all. So I changed the title to \u201c25 ways to strengthen your copy.\u201d Eventually I realized \u201ctighten\u201d was an even better verb.<\/p>\n

15. Ditch the passive voice<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As this\u00a0UNC handout\u00a0explains, using the passive voice isn\u2019t really wrong. But whenever you have the chances to make your writing clearer, you should \u00a0\u2014 and avoiding the passive voice is one of those instances.<\/p>\n

I know the passive voice when I see it, but I\u2019m bad at explaining it, so I\u2019m going to leave that to\u00a0Grammar Girl<\/a>. Explaining grammar is her specialty.<\/p>\n

16. Refer to people as \u201cwho\u201d not \u201cthat\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

John is the guy who always forgets his shoes, not the guy that always forgets his shoes. It\u2019s easy to make this mistake because that has become acceptable in everyday conversations. But it\u2019s more noticeable when it\u2019s written down.<\/p>\n

17. Avoid \u201ccurrently\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cCurrently\u201d is virtually always redundant. Don\u2019t write: \u201cTom Jones is currently a communications director.\u201d If Tom Jones is anything, he\u2019s that at that moment; you don\u2019t need \u201ccurrently\u201d to clarify. Just get rid of it.<\/p>\n

18. Eliminate \u201cthere is\u201d or \u201cthere are\u201d at the beginning of sentences<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This is often a symptom of lazy writing. There are lots of better, more interesting ways to start sentences. Oops. See how easy it is to make this mistake? Instead of starting a sentence with \u201cthere is,\u201d try turning the phrase around to include a verb or start with you.<\/p>\n

For example, replace the sentence above with \u201cStart your sentences in a more interesting way.\u201d If your copy includes a lot of phrases that begin with \u201cthere is\u201d or \u201cthere are,\u201d put some time into rewriting most of them.<\/p>\n

19. Match up your bullet points<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bullet points<\/a>\u00a0are a popular and effective way to organize complex ideas. Just make sure your bullets correspond to one another.<\/p>\n

Too often, writers mix and match mistakes with what you should do or make transition to shoulds halfway through the post \u2014 which only confuses the reader.<\/p>\n

If your piece is called 3 Career Mistakes You Don\u2019t Want to Make, here\u2019s a bullet point that works:<\/p>\n