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Five Tips for Effective Business Editing Copyright © 2012 RedLine Language Services LLC Unauthorized reproduction and distribution prohibited

Five Tips For Effective Business Editing

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Adapted from RedLine\'s white paper "Why Good Copy Is Good Business," this slide presentation shares five tips for editing business documents, from case studies to web copy.

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Page 1: Five Tips For Effective Business Editing

Five Tips for Effective Business Editing

Copyright © 2012 RedLine Language Services LLC Unauthorized reproduction and distribution prohibited

Page 2: Five Tips For Effective Business Editing

Tip #1: Check for consistency.

consistency = professionalism

• Attention to detail reflects well on your company.

• Consistency in grammatical and stylistic conventions—serial commas, the use of dashes, paragraph formatting, etc.—says to your readers that you are thorough.

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Page 3: Five Tips For Effective Business Editing

Tip #2: Check that phrases work as units.

• Replace words that don’t fit the phrase. Eliminate unnatural copy.

• Example: An organization may set or achieve a goal, for example, but it may not carry a goal.

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Page 4: Five Tips For Effective Business Editing

Tip #3: Check that sentence length varies.

• Long sentences only = too complex

• Short sentences only = too little “flow”

• Aim for a mix of long and short sentences, with more short than long. Learn about the Flesch-Kincaid readability scale.

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Page 5: Five Tips For Effective Business Editing

Tip #4: Reread the text.

• When possible, allow time to pass between read-throughs so you have “fresh” eyes.

• Read the text aloud to catch additional errors or unnatural phrasing. (Just move your lips if you’re within earshot of your colleagues.)

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Page 6: Five Tips For Effective Business Editing

Tip #5: Use spell-check and grammar-check tools…twice.

When should you run these tools?

• before you begin editing (to save time during the edit)

• after you have finished editing the text (to check all copy introduced during the editing phase)

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Page 7: Five Tips For Effective Business Editing

For more information

• Download a free copy of “Why Good Copy Is Good Business” for full explanations and examples.

• Visit www.redlinels.com for more information.

• For answers to specific grammar/style questions, send an email to [email protected].

RedLine Language Services [email protected]

(616) 855-4044