Payload
View this email in your browser (|ARCHIVE|) Publishing is an expensive undertaking. If a document gets weighed down with wordy phrases or unclear language, you’re just taking up valuable space. And your message isn’t going to fly.
Much like cargo that gets put on an airplane, space is limited and is charged at a premium.
Given this, when working on large documents—annual reports, white papers and books—it helps to think of both the selection and handling of your written material as payload.
It’s that latter part—handling—that gets overlooked.
Editing isn’t just a service: it’s a process. And as I have pointed out previously in CreativeBoost, process hones the craft (http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=89226eb68936fc712577977b8&id=e3a475b283) .
Here are five ways you can streamline your editing process to keep your payload as light and as efficient as possible.
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Always start in the middle. The first half of a document tends to get read, reviewed and revised most intensively. Typos and wooly language often gets buried in the second half. So start your proofread in the middle: you’ll produce better work in less time.
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Exercise version control. This is a common mistake—and often an expensive one. Changes made to a manuscript (often at the last minute) aren’t shared with the rest of the team. Now there are two versions of the document getting circulated! Don’t let that happen to you. Establish early on who holds the pen on making revisions and ensure you have a file-naming system that everyone can understand.
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Be wary of spellcheck. The spellcheck function in Microsoft Word is useful for catching typos, but no automated process is a substitute for good taste as far as style is concerned.
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Turn off track changes when addressing formatting issues. Removing double-spaces after an end period, fixing bad page breaks or changing font sizes are not things you need to highlight with Word’s track changes feature. They only add clutter.
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Let it simmer. Put some distance between yourself and the document you’re editing. Work on something else for a bit. Go for a walk. Even the tiniest investment of time will give you added perspective and a fresh set of eyes.
Very best, Patrick
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