Why businesses need editors
Writing is an essential part of any business and producing online content for websites, blogs and/or social media is part of every marketing strategy.
If business owners or managers are not good at writing, they hire writers to do it for them. If they are good at writing, they do it themselves.
But as everybody knows: writers cannot edit their own writing. That’s where editors come in.
What writers/business owners can do
You can write the first draft and then self-edit it until you have perfected the document, or content, to the best of your ability. However, as a general rule, it is impossible for a writer to edit their own writing to a high standard.
What writers/business owners cannot do
Because you are familiar with every word and phrase in the document you have written, your brain won’t allow you to identify all the errors in the document, especially the minor ones like missing full stops, misplaced apostrophes or inconsistent capitalisation. And leaving those mistakes in your content will be regarded by at least some customers as unprofessional.
You may also be so invested in whatever you have written that you might not have thought of things like making sure your content addresses the audience in the best possible language for that particular audience, breaking up your text into short paragraphs, or making sure the content is really interesting not only to yourself but to others.
Because looking at your content from the audience’s point of view is an editor’s job.
Why businesses and writers need editors
For information about what editors do, go to: What is editing?
Sally-Anne Watson Kane
Writer, editor, proofreader, owner/operator - On Time Typing, Editing and Proofreading
Sally-Anne Watson Kane owns and operates On Time Typing, Editing and Proofreading (established as 'On Time Typing' in 2002) and Peewee Press (since 2003). Sally-Anne is a professional editor and full member of Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) Australia, based in Moe, Gippsland.
Our services: typing, scribing, report writing, minute-taking, transcription, copy writing, editing, proofreading, graphic design, and self-publishing.
Sally-Anne manages an Australian-based team of eleven typists, scribes, transcriptionists, writers and editors (all subcontractors) including typists in Gippsland as well as typists, editors and scribes in Melbourne, Central Victoria and interstate.
Sally-Anne is a professional member of Institute of Professional Editors and Editors Victoria, and a full member of Life Stories Australia.
Sally-Anne regularly writes articles about sole trader and small business management, writing and editing, self-publishing, and contemporary issues in Australia, across a variety of platforms.
Sally-Anne has 25 years' experience in:
- editing and proofreading publications, websites, policies and reports.
- audio transcription (dictation, transcripts of interviews, focus groups, investigations, hearings).
- recording, transcribing, compiling and self-publishing oral histories and anthologies.
- writing articles, websites, reports and publications
- scribing and writing selection, procurement and referee reports
- scribing, writing and editing self-published memoirs and life stories
- providing self-publishing services to authors, businesses and organisations from handwritten manuscript through to printed book stage, including: project planning, budget, typing, editing, proofreading, graphic design, printer quotes and liaison. We specialise in producing memoirs and life stories, local histories, and minority voices.