Time to tweak – update, update, update your site

Karen    Populating your site     editing, grammar, punctuation

Yes, tweak, not tweet!

So I promised the next post would be about editing your shitty first draft.

My secret to doing this is simple – read it outloud.

Once again, an old radio trick – which makes particular sense for radio copy, since it is written to be read out loud, but it applies to written text that will never be read out loud too.

When you have put that first draft down on paper, read it out to yourself and you will quickly see where the problems lie. I have yet to come across someone who can’t tell when something is grammatically incorrect as they read it out loud.

The key is that you insert the suitable grammatical tools, ie punctuation, in the places where you naturally stop for breath.

So if you pause, usually that’s the place for a comma. If you stop, and take a full breath – that is usually the place for a full stop. Trust me – this does work.

Don’t worry about any more fancy forms of punctuation at this point – if you can write something that flows as you read it aloud, then you are about 95% ahead of many who aim to put their thoughts on paper or a screen.

One tip though, make sure you are actually reading what you have written, not what you think you have written. If you are a visual type, it can be too easy to simply read out what you think the words are.

Then of course, you might like to run your words through the spell checker.

If you are not confident that spell check will pick up everything, get someone you trust to have a read before you publish your content. Getting two people to check it is even better.

Any questions? I would love to receive your thoughts or comments – just leave them down below.

The next post is about making a real connection through your written content.

Till then, happy creating

Karen