Let's get real for a sec. Have you ever looked at your writing – and I mean really looked – and thought there was room for improvement? Maybe you’ve got fallback phrases you use a lot, like ‘what’s more’, ‘in fact’ and ‘let’s face it’. Or maybe you confuse contractions like ‘its’ and ‘it's’.
You could even be a speedy touch-typist who sometimes misses letters, like writing ‘poo’ instead of ‘pool’ or ‘chorine’ instead of ‘chlorine’. (Can you tell I’ve been writing for the pool industry lately?) That doesn’t mean you’re a poor writer. It just means you need an editor.
Tools like Grammarly and Hemingway can be useful, but they only go so far. They overlook words that are correctly spelled but contextually wrong. Or they recommend changes that make your copy sound like it’s got a rod up its rear.
Sure, you could ask that helpful colleague who loved English at school. But they might not understand the difference between a hyphen and an en dash, or UK versus US spelling, or the perils of a comma splice.
But you may be saying, ‘C’mon, Gabriella. Does it really matter? I want my copy to have personality.’ Look, intentional errors can give your writing personality, for sure, but writing blind spots may have a different effect. They could:
bore
confuse
mislead
look sloppy
undermine your authority
fill your inbox with snarky comments.
Your best option is to hire an editor to review your copy before it goes live. They’ll help you iron out convoluted grammar, remove repetition, insert missing apostrophes and correct errors that slip through grammar apps.
They can even make suggestions on how to make your writing more direct (passive over active voice) or connect ideas more seamlessly (greased chute, baby).
Will your writing still have personality? Of course! It just won’t have errors that distract from your message.
And if you’re in the marketing space, you could hire a savvy editor (like me!) who not only gets conversion copy, but who'll respect your frameworks and won't edit the bejesus out of them. To find out more, see my Services page.
What are your language blind spots? Let me know in the comments below!
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