5 Reasons Why You Should Use an Editor

Ramon

Blog, Editing04 January, 2024

These days, with the ever-increasing use of English as the world’s international language and the generally fierce competition to be at the top of search engine rankings, effective editing and proofreading skills are in high demand. In order to create persuasive, evocative content, having work edited for issues such as fluency, consistency, and localisation is essential.

Below, we list the five main reasons why you should entrust your work to a professional editor.

1. Fluency

While many people can communicate in English, not everyone (and everything) can communicate well. This is particularly true of AIs, which currently tend to produce uninspiring generic content that, by its nature, sounds like it was written by a computer. This problem is also commonplace with machine-translated content — AIs tend to translate directly into the easiest and most obvious forms, and any linguistic nuances, humour, or stylistic flourishes can become lost. The ultimate result? Drab, uninspiring content that is indistinguishable from the huge mass of dreary, repetitive AI clickbait (Amazon Prime has quietly added 10 huge films, etc.) proliferating on the net.

2. Trust

After cost, one of the key factors that native speakers look for when deciding to purchase online is whether the website is legitimate. We’ve all seen scams in not-quite-perfect (or downright awful) English, and to many, incorrect English usage is synonymous with cybercrime.

Especially for small businesses trying to boost their online presence, avoiding those little grammatical errors and typos that can creep into even the most well-written text could mean the difference between success and failure. Google also demotes low-quality content, so it’s best to have your material thoroughly checked before it goes live.

3. Localisation

Also true of AIs is that they struggle with — or even fail to understand — the different forms of English. While US English is the default or only option for machine-translated/written content, most European countries prefer UK English. This can also create a mismatch where both styles end up being used.

Alongside this, most idioms and expressions are country-specific and will cause confusion or amusement if not localised correctly by a native speaker. For example, while someone from France might say, ‘Je pourrais le faire les doigts dans le nez!’ (I can do it with my fingers in my nose!) the direct English equivalent would be ‘I can do it with my hands tied behind my back!’.

4. Readability

People get bored easily. And with a near-infinite amount of choices now available, if the content isn’t compelling, then they simply go elsewhere very quickly. Overly verbose sentences, trite cliches, repetition, and redundancies all detract from the core message.

A good editor, in contrast, will change, delete or adapt your content to ensure that the reader is inspired to learn more.

5. Clarity and objectivity

We are not always our own best editors. What may sound great in your head might come across as strange, inappropriate, or confused to a dispassionate reader. Such problems are only compounded by machine translation, as it will attempt to put complex ideas into a simplistic form based on its own predefined criteria and thus further detract from what was originally being said.

A part of the editor’s job is to be a supportive critic and neutral observer (literally the reader’s voice), providing an unbiased appraisal of the work and offering useful suggestions if something appears unclear or could perhaps be changed to better resonate with the core audience.

To conclude, when working in accordance with the five factors given above, a professional editor can transcend the problems of cross-language translation and the limitations of machine editing and help create carefully crafted content that is error-free, compelling, and easily understandable to the average reader.

Your website will rank higher, your audience will trust/be inspired by you, and your article is more likely to be accepted. So before you publish, always send your work to a skilled editor/proofreader!