Copy Editing & Enhancement

When you have the talking points, the outline or the first draft in the bag, copy editing & enhancement can make the difference between “meh” and “marvelous”, between “Sorry!” and “SALE!

Copy editing

Here’s a secret: Unless you’re presenting yourself as a professional writer, storyteller, or speaker, no one expects you to excel as a communicator! It’s perfectly legitimate to hire a professional writer/editor to take what you’ve gathered and massage it into a compelling, memorable presentation.

And here’s something else you need to know: you shouldn’t feel in the least bit embarrassed to ask for help. Throughout grade/middle/high school and college, most teachers and professors teach their students to write properly and pleasantly; they don’t teach them to write powerfully. (Why? Because very few teachers are authors and copywriters.) Powerful writing is a discipline that takes a lot more time, study and practice than you’ll find in most traditional places of learning.

This is why copy-editing and enhancement is so much a part of every copywriter’s weekly schedule. Most businesses that are surviving and thriving employ freelance or staff writers to finesse the copy and content that their target audiences will see. No one wants to find typos, grammatical errors, homophones and word substitutes that leave readers in stitches–or scowling in disapproval and disgust. A lot of people don’t know ‘then’ from ‘than’ or ‘there” from ‘they’re’ and ‘their’, or ‘insure’ from ‘ensure’.

And how many times have you seen ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ and ‘antidote’ and ‘anecdote’ used interchangeably? How many times have you seen ‘allot’ instead of “a lot”? How many times have you read “apart” when the writer meant “a part” and “forward” instead of “foreword.” Too many, I’ll wager!

The last thing you need is to send your ideal clients screaming for the exits because of glitches like these. (Not to mention Google, which penalizes sub-standard copy!)

By enlisting a professional copywriter, you can be sure that when your target audience gets your marketing and informational materials they will be impressed and not distressed.

So the next time you get ready to hit ‘publish’, ‘send’ or ‘print’ it’s probably a good idea to have a professional wordsmith and grammarian proofread, edit and copy-enhance what you’ve created. It’s always better to be safe than sorry. Let’s talk!