5 Mistakes to Watch Out For When Editing Your Blog Posts

by Laura Smith, @lsmith335

Editing Is Crucial

Let’s face it, even a good first draft can look like a hot mess when it’s first read. Every decent English teacher I’ve ever had has marked up my rough draft with a red pen and then said, “good job.” But we’re not in English class anymore, and we have to take the red pen to our work ourselves. That means catching everything from basic typos to cutting entire sections that don’t flow with the rest of the piece. It also means throwing away some basic knowledge that I learned in school and adapting to the age of writing online.

I have to admit, this was the most self-aware piece I’ve ever written. I had to make sure I was following my own advice as I was giving it. After all, what’s the point of offering advice if you’re not going to follow it yourself? Below are five of the major elements that I review when I’m editing my blog articles.

1. Long and Wordy Sentences and Paragraphs

Reading on a screen is much different from reading from a piece of paper. Forget everything your elementary school teachers taught you about writing paragraphs. If you can make your point in two sentences, move onto the next paragraph.

Help your readers out by breaking up your paragraphs into shorter pieces. A quick scroll through the article will cause them to notice the length right away. They’re more likely to read three paragraphs that are each three sentences long than one paragraph that is nine sentences long. It’s like cutting a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into fourths rather than in half to make a kid believe that they’re eating a smaller amount of food.

Also, vary your sentence length. Can you split a long sentence into two shorter ones? Are you over-explaining something that the reader already understands? Can you provide a specific example rather than rephrase what you just said? Read your work aloud to make sure you can say the sentence in one breath. If not, your own voice will tell you where you need to pause.

2. Trying To Cram In A Good Point That Doesn’t Fit With The Rest Of The Article

Notice when you’re veering off-topic. When we’re drafting a piece, we tend to write down everything that comes to mind, and that’s good. But you have to be willing to cut anything and everything if you need to. This might be because of word length limits or the fact that the point has nothing to do with the rest of the paragraph or article.

In one recent piece that I wrote, I was describing the things that writers do to distract themselves from writing. I started naming specific tasks and chores, like changing light bulbs or taking old clothes to the Goodwill. It felt like a lighthearted and relatable point. However, not only did it take up a crucial chunk of my limited word count, but it was redundant and kept the reader from getting to the point of that section, which was to take time to organize your files. So, I shortened the paragraph to one sentence and got to the actual point of the section much faster.

If a stray sentence or paragraph fits better in another part of the article, move it. Otherwise, save it for a different article, or delete it all together. Even a solid point can distract from the focus of the piece and make the article look choppy and disorganized to a reader.

3. Using a Bad Title

Titles are hard for me. Whether it’s the title of a book, an article, or a section of a piece, I stress over whether the title is too generic to capture a reader’s attention or too obscure to let the reader know what the article is about. Luckily, there are free tools to help with this, at least when writing blogs and articles.

One such tool is the Headline Analyzer. Here, you type in the rough title that you have come up with and the category of the piece, and the site will tell you how “good” it is. You want to aim for a 25% effectiveness or higher. You can then tweak words and placement, and run it through again to compare with your last score. Here is the link to the site:  https://www.aminstitute.com/headline/

4. A Rushed or Boring Introduction and Conclusion

When I blog, I like to write a meaningful introduction and conclusion to most of my pieces, even if those are the parts that a lot of readers like to skip. Still, my formal training taught me to summarize and reiterate your points at the beginning and end of your essays so if a reader does take a look at it, it has to be gripping.

Start with a personal story, ask a question, or tell a joke, depending on the topic. Don’t ramble on. Get to your list or the meat of your article fast. Keep it short so that readers don’t feel the need to scroll past the beginning or stop at the conclusion. Don’t think of these sections as something to get through. Use them to put your own personal flair on the piece.

5. Inconsistencies in Formatting and Word Choice

You have to pick a format and stick with it. Don’t put some important words in bold and others in Italics. Don’t start numbering sections and bulleting others. Don’t start with a quote at the beginning of some of your sections and then stop halfway through. Don’t use jargon that you haven’t explained or examples that are confusing or take too long to describe.

If you’re reviewing a movie, don’t start calling a character by their nickname without explaining that it is their nickname the first time you use it or providing the names of actors who played certain characters but not others. Make sure that you are using the right format for the titles of novels, short stories, songs, movies, TV shows, etc. Don’t assume you are a master of English mechanics. Look up anything that you’re not sure of on trustworthy sites.

When you’re looking up pictures, make sure they fit in with the topic of the piece. Don’t try to make it work with a creative caption.  Use high quality images so that readers know what they’re looking at and don’t think there’s something wrong with their screen.

Conclusion

Using these five editing tips are going to lower your chances of kicking yourself when you find an error or weakness in your piece after it is published. It’s devastating to find imperfections in your perfect work, and you most likely will, but at least they will be small blemishes, not giant warts. So, take your red pen and start marking up that page before you hit publish!

Laura Smith is the self-published author of three middle grade books, a volunteer editor for LitPick (a student book review website), and a blogger for HubPages. When she isn’t writing, she’s shopping, drawing, working on projects around her house, and spending time with her family.

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