Improve your copywriting: the editing checklist
Reviewing and editing your copy is crucial to ensure that the final words published on the page do what they need to do.
But when reviewing your copy, what are you actually looking for?
Having a clear checklist for reviewing your copywriting can improve your content's quality and make the sign-off process less painful. In fact, knowing the sign-off criteria upfront can also help you to craft better copy from the start.
This checklist reflects the order in which you should be reviewing the copy during the creation process. Firstly, after you have sketched out a first draft, ask yourself - does this meet our audience’s needs? And, finally, check for any grammatical errors before you publish.
Editing checklist
User needs. Does your content meet your audiences’ needs?
Firstly, having research and insight into what your users want or need can simplify the copywriting process. Creating a user story and acceptance criteria at the start can be a useful way of distilling those insights so that you can more easily assess whether your copy meets those needs. As well as functional needs, such as needing to know specific information, think about your users’ emotional needs too. Does this content need to build trust, evoke excitement or both? And does your copy do that?
Comprehension. Does it make sense? Is it easy to follow?
A well-structured piece is easier to understand and more likely to engage readers. It can be useful when drafting your copy to start by sketching out the structure with the headings and subheadings you want to use. That way it is easy to reorder the sections so that it follows a logical hierarchy. Most of the time you will want to think about what is most important to your users and order your content with the most important information at the top. Or you might adopt another logical structure such as step-by-step instructions.
Readability and accessibility. Is the copy clear and understandable to your audience?
Copy which is easy to read builds trust, reduces confusion, and is preferred by both high and low-literacy readers. To achieve this, aim to reflect the language of your audience and explain or remove acronyms, jargon and other unfamiliar terms. Tools like the Hemmingway App can also be very useful for identifying complex sentences or phrases which can be simplified.
Making your copy more readable will make it more accessible to a variety of readers such as people who are neurodivergent or speak English as a second language. In addition, you will want to review your copy for accessibility issues, for example by checking that your hyperlinks are descriptive.
Accuracy. Are the facts right? Do those hyperlinks work? Are those statistics up to date?
You’ll often ask a subject matter expert, such as an academic, to review the copy. If you have ever sent a piece of copy to be reviewed for accuracy and had it returned with a lot of copywriting changes then you might find it helpful to separate ownership of the facts from how they are communicated. Ask your subject matter expert to check the facts (and only the facts!) and make it clear that you will separately review the style and readability.
Style and tone of voice. Is it aligned with your house style? Does it reflect your brand personality and key messaging?
Does your institution capitalise the ‘u’ in university? Is it ‘ten’ or ‘10’? Does ‘master’s degree’ have an apostrophe? These are all questions of style and the answer will vary depending on your institution’s house style. The easiest thing to do is simply remember to check against your style guide things like how numbers, times, dates and campus names are expressed.
Ideally, your institution will also have a defined tone of voice as part of your brand guidelines. Now is the time to review and tweak your copy so that it aligns with how your institution wants to express its brand.
Grammar. Is the grammar, spelling and punctuation correct?
Finally, we reach the proofreading stage. It can be useful to ask someone else to proofread your copy with a fresh pair of eyes. Or, if you are checking your own copy, change the type font or size. Making it look different can make it easier to spot errors. While spell checker tools make the task a lot easier, look out for your device being in American English and your institution in British English (or vice versa).
We understand that each organisation is different. That’s why we offer bespoke consultancy services and training programmes to ensure that what we deliver is right for you, your team and your current challenges.
We provide bespoke copywriting training and services to meet a variety of needs. For example:
Essential copywriting
Advanced copywriting
Bespoke copywriting for specific channels and purposes, such as course content
Copywriting training for academics and staff without a communications background who need to communicate as part of their role
If you want to talk to us about consultancy services, training programmes or any content needs, contact us today.
See how we delivered bespoke copywriting training to help the University of Nottingham improve the course web pages.
