Blog Editing: 4 Steps to Take Before Publishing Your Post

DailyMorningCoffee welcomes Mariana Ashley as a Guest Author. Thanks for contributing this awesome article Mariana. I am not sure if you have read through my posts, I had a similar article which I even submitted as a guest post. You can read it here – Better Blogger Checklist.

With thousands upon thousands of blogs throughout the web, it can be extremely difficult to really stand out in the industry as a new blogger. So much about blogging is creating material readers want to see. Developing alluring blog content not only involves writing posts that people find engaging and unique, but also creating a site that is visually appealing, a brand that is easily recognizable, and a site that runs smoothly. While each of these aspects of blogging are completely essential to becoming a true success and gaining a following initially, there are many smaller details about blogging that help to keep your audience satisfied. One of the most important aspects of each of your posts is your editing process. There are simply too many blog posts out there swarming with typos, pointless words, poor spelling, and atrocious grammatical errors. Before clicking the publish button for your next post, be sure to try these four reviewing and editing tips to ensure that you are producing the best material possible.

Step Away From the Post

One of the first steps you should take in your editing process is backing away from your post for a period of time. Getting some distance from your writing is a vital step in editing. You must first create that distance before you can go back into the piece and give it a fair critical eye. In a lot of ways, our writing is our offspring. We birth these thoughts, ideas, and sentences in our minds and then craft them into living breathing beings on a page. It is nearly impossible to go in with an unbiased eye and cut down or criticize our creation. By giving yourself some space and time away from your writing, you will be better able to go in and make it a stronger piece. Write your post and then put it away for a day or two before editing the piece. A fresh set of eyes will allow you to see errors more clearly and gaping holes in logic and language more easily.

Be Thorough- Reread

After you’ve taken some time away from your blog post, take another read through from the reader’s point of view. Approach the piece as you would expect your readers to approach it. Pay specific attention to the beginning of the post. Does the first sentence hook you? Is the title interesting enough to draw you in? You have to reread the post, thinking from the point of view of your readers to see if they will actually be engaged by your writing. Look at the overarching theme and message of your post. Is it clear? Do you accomplish what you want with the “story”? If you as the author cannot pinpoint the theme and point of a post, then your readers certainly won’t be able to. Also, pay close attention to the conclusion of your post. Looking at it from the readers’ point of view, are you left wanting to read more from this author? Are you curious to see how this particular author tackles other subjects and topics? If you cannot answer yes to these questions, there will need to be some revisions done. Go back revise these crucial points of your post so that it is immediately engaging and leaves the reader wanting something more.

Talk It Out

Print out your blog post and read it out loud to yourself. One of the biggest mistakes that bloggers make is creating blog posts that are too academic sounding. Many of us come from academic writing backgrounds, so it can be difficult to separate the academic tone from our writing. However, most blogs are simply not intended to sound academic. Blogs, for the most part, should sound conversational and natural. You want your pieces to be easily approachable and naturally engaging for your readers. By reading your posts out loud to yourself, you can better identify what sounds natural and what sounds awkward or out of place. Work to create posts that you can easily read out loud. Reading things out loud also makes it significantly easier to recognize typos or language errors in your writing.

Cut the Junk

One of the most important parts of the editing process is deleting things. You should go through each of your posts and delete any unnecessary words or phrases. By removing these unnecessary words, you will make your post a faster and smoother reading experience. Try to edit your post for style so that you take as much out as possible without compromising your own writing style or the meaning of your post. Take out any of the fluff you might naturally include in your first draft. Don’t repeat common words over and over. Limiting your post’s language use is just another step in making the post more natural and conversational.

By-line:

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to [email protected].

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