Perhaps you’ve sent a pitch to Ms. Senior Editor only to remember that it’s Mr. Senior Editor. Or you’ve invited a reporter to a press conference on Monday the 3rd and received a message back saying, “The 3rd is a Tuesday. What day is your event?” So you know great content doesn’t mean anything if a document is poorly written or contains typos.
Focusing on a process for writing can set you up for success. A thorough process means you have time for planning, drafting, reviewing, quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC). Juggling multiple projects and deadlines can make it hard to set aside time for all of these steps, and the planning step often gets sacrificed. Still, taking a few minutes to plan your writing before you begin will make editing much easier.
Planning doesn’t have to mean crafting an elaborate outline. As we know, the goal in the PR world is to identify key takeaways and other must-include information. A good approach, especially for a short email, is to ask, “What is the one thing I want my reader to remember?” From there, you can list bullet points of the information needed for the reader to understand your thrust and other key messages.
Drafting may be the simplest step. If you’ve spent time planning and have the background information you need, drafting is the time to get your thoughts on paper. Writing a draft in one uninterrupted sitting should help you arrange your thoughts. The draft need not be perfect. You will return and improve content and then QA/QC for technical errors.
This is where reviewing starts. It is the time to improve your content. Remember, during planning, you identified key takeaways. Now make sure the message you’re left with after reading matches those takeaways.
A good trick to make sure what you’ve written reflects your intended message is to apply a reverse outline. Read each paragraph of your document and jot down the key message in the margins. If your document is long, take another step and identify key messages for sections. Review those messages to make sure they reflect your intentions.
Once your content is where you want it, it’s time for QA/QC. This is the final step in your process. But if you skip it, it’s the first thing the reader will notice. This step addresses the technical aspects of your writing: spelling, grammar, missing words and punctuation.
Begin with spell-check. Never send out anything that hasn’t been spell-checked. Don’t, however, rely on spell-check—it won’t catch “their” vs “there,” “aisle” vs “isle” or “hat” when you meant “that.”
It’s hard to proofread your own work. You face a sort of autopilot syndrome. Think about driving to work. You take the same route every day and, after a while, you hardly have to think about it. You’re on autopilot.
Reviewing your own PR writing can work the same way. Your readers, on the other hand, are looking at your writing like someone experiencing a scenic drive for the first time. They’ll notice far more details than you.
The good news is that the same strategies can help you overcome both of these hurdles. Finding ways to trick your brain into thinking you’re reading something for the first time can make your editing more effective and efficient.
The gist is to find a way to present information you wrote back to yourself in a new format. If you like to draft on paper, type your work and proof it as you type, and again once it’s on the computer screen. If you type your work, you can rewrite your text with pen and paper. Other techniques: Read in a new environment; read out loud; start at the bottom.
Keep a short list nearby to remind you of things to check when you QA/QC. Some examples: Have you used spell-check? Manually checked for typos? Are dates, times, locations, addresses, names correct? Can you delete words or sentences? Unnecessary commas? Serial commas or comma splices? Are words capitalized that don’t need to be? Have you checked apostrophes for possession versus contraction? Are you consistent in voice, tense and point of view? Is the most important information up front? Having a reminder of your common mistakes is a great way to stop making them. Before you know it, you’ll be able to replace “check their/there/they’re” with something else.
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