There’s a bit of a fuzzy line between composing and editing. Often, to reach that complete first draft, we’ll cut and paste words and phrases, rewrite ideas, maybe even scratch a whole screen’s worth of text and start over.

This is inevitable, though perhaps not ideal. “Tweaking” the text while we write will catch errors and improve phrasing, but it won’t elevate the consistency, clarity, and quality of the writing.

For our purposes, editing is about substantively improving the writing. Don’t confuse this with proofreading, where you fix typos and punctuation. That stuff is important, too, but comes at the end of the process, which is why we’ll talk more about it in the next chapter.

The mental shift from writing to editing doesn’t happen automatically. If you’ve just finished your first big run through the Compose phase, job one is to take a break. Not too long, mind you. A lunch break will do. A walk around the block. A hoverboard trip to the all-you-can-eat activated yogurt buffet, if you work in one of those futuristic Silicon Valley offices.

Going somewhere, changing your workspace, or otherwise physically marking a shift in mindset allows you to sit down to your work with a fresh intention. This helps you focus on what you’re doing right now: editing, editing, editing.

And hands off that Delete key! There’s something important we need to cover first: ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.

Track Your Changes

Moving from composing text to editing text means that you’ll have versions. There’s the first version, and then the version after you correct that obvious spelling mistake, and the version after you rewrite the headline, and so on. Every change creates a new version of the text. Add collaborators and other editors to the mix, and suddenly there are versions of your versions. And versions of those versions!

You need an anchor in this version storm: a system to track and manage revisions before you begin editing. Whether you’re revising a single error message string inside a web app, or trying to put some polish on a thirty-page white paper, the principles are the same:

• You want to preserve your first draft for reference.
• You want to be able to undo (and redo) changes that you and others make to the text with relative ease.
• You want to keep track of the who and the why of any changes more seriously than correcting typos and spelling errors.

Editing can be dangerous. Move too quickly, and you can lose the thread of what you were trying to accomplish—or lose good work altogether. It’s like a big gust of wind blowing loose papers off an old-timey novelist’s desk straight into the fireplace, except in this case you’re the wind and the fire. (The paper was your chance at leaving early today.)

Tracking this stuff is especially important if you’re doing lots of fast loops (say, in Agile-ish environments) where sign-offs happen incrementally. You don’t want your text to surprise anyone the next time they look at it. And if they are surprised, you’ll want to be able to explain and defend your choices.

There are as many methods of managing versions as there are teams and workflows. Let’s look at a few of the more common ones.

Haxonomies

Haxonomy is a fancy name for a simple thing you’re probably already doing somewhere. The name is a portmanteau of hack and taxonomy. A taxonomy, in the general sense, is a method of classification. When the type of organization you want isn’t available where you want it, you can “hack” it in. Hence: haxonomy.

Many people instinctively manage document versions with haxonomies in the file name. This leads to names like:

2018–02–28 Big Deliverable Version 5 FINAL copy ACTUAL FINAL—SK + KH Edits.docx.PDF

Instead, plan your haxonomies. Some useful file-naming patterns include:

• An incremental number system (like V1, V2, V3, etc.), updated each time before you make any substantive changes to the text—the biggest number will always be the most recent version.
• Initials to indicate whose edits the version contains (e.g., Book Draft—SK).
• Shorthand for process steps that have been completed, such as “LGL” for a version of the text that the lawyers have already signed off on.

Where you store files can communicate information, too—for instance, making the canonical version of the text the only file allowed in a particular shared folder.

It’s best not to improvise these things. Without a clear plan, shared by the whole team, things like color codes and tags and folders will turn into a noisy mess.

Changelogs

Changelogs are just what they sound like: a written log of changes that have been published or otherwise incorporated into the thing that’s been changed.

Changelogs are a concept you can use on any project, no fancy software required. You could even keep one right at the top of the document itself. Having the history of the writing paired closely with the writing makes it easier for everyone to understand how the text ended up the way that it did.

This is especially handy during reviews with persnickety stakeholders who try to poke holes in your process:

Stakeholder: “Where is this writing coming from? Has marketing looked at this?”

You (so on top of version management): “Why, yes, you can see that on June 19, we had a collaborative working session on the text with marketing.”

Stakeholder: “Hmm. Well. Okay, good.”

Make notes about what you change as you change it, and include dates. This is tedious, yes, but gets less so over time as you build the habit and get used to the benefits.

Here are some example entries you might put in a manual changelog:

• 02/13 DN—Wrote first draft based on outline from support team
• 02/17 MJM—Revised all CTA strings based on style guide (incl. title case on buttons)
• 2/18 DN—Completely new intro copy dropped at VP’s request
• 2/25 (PM update email)—Reviewed by support (Maurice) for accuracy, gave okay

You may think you’ll remember these types of things, but you won’t. Pairing your changelog with a basic versioning system will make it much easier to navigate all of the forthcoming trickiness of getting text reviewed and approved.

Automatic version control

Online environments like Google Documents and features like Track Changes in Microsoft Word do a decent job of highlighting what’s different since the last time you looked at the text, but they can’t read your mind. If the editing process takes you through several deeply different versions of the text—different conceptual approaches, a different tone, a different structure—it can be hard to return to a specific, earlier approach.

Don’t rely exclusively on autosaves and cloud backups—documenting decisions and intent are as much a part of smart version control as monitoring changes to the text itself.

If you work with code, you might already be a version control pro with a tool like GitHub. These types of systems are great for knowing exactly what changed and when, but the “why” is still up to you: be sure to comment on those commits.

Know Why You’re Editing

Editing requires an intention, a lens of sorts—an answer to the question “Editing for what?” You could rewrite a draft fifty times, but if you don’t have a goal in mind during those rewrites, how can you know whether it’s getting any better?

Having a lens changes your mindset from merely reading the text to evaluating the text against particular criteria. Let’s look at a few of the more common editing lenses.

Focus

Editing to make your writing more focused means cutting out stuff that isn’t related to the key goals and messages of your design. Writing is focused when every word—every word—is serving a clear purpose.

When you edit for focus, you might start by skimming through the text and marking any words that seem incidental, frivolous, trivial, or disconnected. Ask yourself what, if anything, they’re contributing to the writing. If you don’t have a good answer, cut it.

Editing for focus can also mean evaluating your text against your stated goals. How well does it articulate the key messages? If the goal is to sell, is it compelling and persuasive? If the goal is to educate, is it clear and complete? Does it anticipate and answer key questions?

Simplicity

Everyone will tell you that simplicity is a good thing. But how do you actually achieve it? If you feel like the writing is too complex and could benefit from being simpler, there are three key levers you can manipulate:

• Structure: How it’s organized. Things that feel complex often feel simpler once they’re in the right order. It’s the same information, mostly the same words, but organized in a way that adds context and clarifies the meaning.
• Language: The words you use. Many organizations strive to apply principles of plain language to their writing—using the simplest words possible in any given situation. Plain language doesn’t mean dumbed-down or boring; directness and clarity make room for your big ideas to pop.
• Concept: The big idea behind the writing. Clear concepts keep things simple. If you’re explaining something new or complex, consider a metaphor that’s relatable for your primary audience.

Readability

Is the writing easy or hard to read? Is it easy or hard to understand? Can people follow along, or will they get lost?

Readability isn’t about legibility in the design sense, but about what’s happening in a reader’s head as they process the words.

If we want our writing to be readable and user-friendly, we need to do more work now so that our readers have less work to do later. For instance:

• Extract the most important point and put it right at the top.
• Clearly specify the next action the reader needs to take.
• State whom the information is for (or not for).
• Vary the lengths of sentences and paragraphs. (Rhythmic variety is easier to read.)

Readability tests can help evaluate your text based on things like overall length and the number of syllables in your words. While not a foolproof metric, it’s useful for comparing newer versions of text with older ones to see if you’re headed in the right direction. You could also benchmark against similar text within your design, or within a competitor’s design. For some recommended readability tools, see the Resources section.

Consistency

Editing for consistency means making sure your writing agrees with itself, and that it agrees with all of the other stuff it’s connected to. Little inconsistencies creep in everywhere: here it’s the “welcome” screen, there it’s the “sign-in” screen. Here it’s a “free trial,” there it’s a “test drive.” The button on this contact form says “Submit,” but that one says “Send.”

Part of your job is to ensure that the words you use to describe product features and interface components are consistent throughout the experience. One way to achieve this is through the application of a controlled vocabulary.

Controlled vocabularies are like custom dictionaries. They can exist as a simple list of terms and definitions; you could even incorporate them as a layer in a design pattern library.

Editing for consistency is fairly straightforward, provided you have controlled vocabulary documentation or an interface element inventory. Use the search function within your writing environment to find the listed terms—or the terms the list is meant to replace.

Strength

Do the words make an impact? Does the writing feel strong, or does it feel passive? Passive voice is almost guaranteed to suck the strength out of your writing.

To eliminate passive voice, you first have to recognize it. Talking about subjects and objects and diagramming sentences is boring, so let’s say: passive voice has no ownership—it feels weak—whereas active voice takes a stand—it feels strong.

Compare, for instance:

• Passive voice: “Mistakes were made.”
• Active voice: “I screwed up. My bad.”

In the passive example, no one is doing anything. It’s weak. Who made the mistakes? No one, apparently. Passive voice isn’t wrong, per se, but it has less impact than active voice. In active voice, there’s action, not just existence.

Putting your ideas in the right order also adds impact and strength. In a first draft, you’re figuring out what to write as you’re writing it, which means that the most interesting idea—the one with the most impact—often ends up at the end of your sentence, paragraph, or flow. Move it to the top, and boom! Writing so strong, it’s flexing for selfies.

Tone

Getting the right tone for your writing means that it’s emotionally appropriate to the audience and subject matter. It’s about finding the right “vibe,” the right “level” for the writing.

With a clear assignment to guide you (meaning you know the audience and context for your writing), odds are good that your tone is already fairly appropriate. Still, tone can be a useful editing lens on a screen-by-screen or paragraph-by-paragraph basis. Just like in real life, one inappropriate comment at the wrong moment can throw off an entire experience.

There are a few specific angles on tone that often apply to business and design writing. Let’s take a closer look.

Urgency

Buy now! Ends soon! Subscribe in the next thirty seconds or there will never be rainbows again!

Creating a sense of urgency can be useful, but, when done poorly, risks ringing hollow and making users skeptical. It can even do long-term damage to whether or not users trust you and your brand. Urgency must be applied appropriately.

Not appropriate:

URGENT! ATTENTION REQUIRED! We value your feedback. If you do not respond to our previous survey in the next 3 days, you will LOSE your ability to be entered into a contest with 8 million other customers to win a single $25 Outback Steakhouse Gift Certificate.

Better:

URGENT! ATTENTION REQUIRED! Your domain will expire in 3 days. It is NOT set to renew. If you do not manually renew, you could lose access to your domain name forever.

Be thoughtful about your writing’s necessary level of urgency. Sometimes the right thing to do is to slow people down. Sometimes the right thing to do is to freak them out (just a little). Get clear on what’s appropriate for your design, and edit accordingly.

Scale

Editing for appropriate scale means asking yourself how important the subject really is, and communicating that importance accurately and effectively.

Hyperbole is a crutch. Calling everything the biggest, best, greatest, and most fantastic ever is the sign of a weak mind. A weak, orange, treasonous mind.

Not every product update is revolutionary. Not every feature is groundbreaking. Are you expressing a big idea or a small idea? Does everyone need to stop in their tracks and pay attention to this, or is it okay if it only reaches some users?

Emotion

The emotional aspect of your writing needs to be appropriate to the subject matter. Delight and humor can be wonderful things, but they shouldn’t be shoved into every experience. It’s perfectly fine for some experiences—and the writing that supports them—to be serious, clear, or even somber.

Timing is a critical factor in conveying the appropriate emotion with your writing. For instance, users don’t want cutesy messages while their mortgage payment is being processed.

The earlier prep work you’ve done to understand your audience and the context of the design writing will go a long way toward helping you convey the appropriate emotional tone with your words. It may be worth revisiting that information ahead of an editing pass to put you in an audience-focused state of mind.

Do the Editing

At this point, you might be asking: how exactly do I do the editing?

To effectively edit your writing, you need to introduce a layer of abstraction between you and the copy. (If you’ve ever flipped text in a design upside-down to check the kerning, you know what I’m talking about.)

That abstraction layer can be a hack, a tool, or another person (like an editor)—whatever you need to approach the work with more distance and objectivity.

Choose editing tools that make you look closely and carefully at the actual words that have been written, not just your impression of what it says. These are a few methods that work reliably, no matter what you’ve written.

Read it

At the risk of stating the obvious: it’s a good idea to read what you’ve written before you show it to someone else. This readback will help you catch major errors like unfinished sentences and big copy-and-paste goofs.

The problem with reading, however, is that you’re very good at it. Too good! You’ve been reading your whole life, and as with anything you’ve practiced that much, a lot of it happens on autopilot. Your pattern-optimized brain (thanks, evolution!) wants to make sense of whatever mess of letters it encounters, and it will lie, cheat, and steal to make that happen.

That means that a quiet, in-your-head readback is not a great way to catch some of the more pernicious errors of grammar, spelling, and formatting that will plague your copy. There are smarter approaches to reading your work that will help you edit. Let’s look at a few.

Read it out loud

Reading your text out loud (into the air, making actual sounds with your mouth) is one of the most recommended bits of editing advice for writers.

However, I know from experience that if I simply tell you to read it out loud, you’ll think to yourself, “Oh, yes, that is very good advice. I will read my writing out loud from now on.” But then you won’t actually do it. You’re not going to do it!

Why don’t people do it? Lots of reasons, I suppose. It takes too long? It feels silly? You work in an open-plan office (a.k.a. Writer’s Hell) and it would bug your coworkers?

Still, if it’s a very important piece, do try hard to read it out loud at a normal speaking pace. You can print your text and take it on a walk (don’t forget a red pen!). Or slip into an unused conference room. I sometimes read my text “out loud” to myself at a very low volume.

While you’re reading, listen. Listen for anywhere that you trip up, anything that sounds funny, anything that’s hard to say, anywhere that you got lost. Mark those passages and consider them for revision.

Read it out loud to a person

This is especially good for marketing copy. Remember, real human people are going to have to read what you write. If you can’t read it out loud to someone without feeling completely awkward, that’s pretty telling.

There’s also something magical about “performing” your text for someone—it engages a very different part of the brain. You may well surprise yourself with a creative improvisation as you’re speaking the words that wouldn’t have occurred to you as you were writing them.

(And yes, you can totally read it to your dog. That has the added benefit of being adorable.)

Have the computer read it to you

Text-to-speech is a wonderful accessibility tool, and just so happens to be handy for writers, too. I frequently make my Mac read things back to me. In many apps, you can highlight the text you want read and select a read-aloud option, and the computer will read absolutely everything in the most literal way. This is great for catching repeated words and other typos that your brain might trick you into thinking aren’t there.

Have a person read it to you

Having someone else read it out loud makes the feedback very direct. Readers who are not you might put the emphasis in unexpected places, revealing potential ambiguities. You can hear where they hesitate and where they speed up. You don’t even have to ask them for their thoughts (though you might as well)—just hearing them read it will reveal plenty.

Ask for feedback

Stakeholder reviews—for both design and writing—are often built into our processes. What doesn’t occur to many writers, however, is that they may be able to ask stakeholders for feedback before asking them for approval.

This may be a new idea for your stakeholders, too, and thus needs to be approached carefully. How you frame your invitation matters. Dropping a meeting invite on someone’s calendar called “Review onboarding text” sets a very different tone than sending a message asking if you can borrow a few minutes of their time at the end of the day to run some preliminary approaches by them.

Be clear what kind of feedback you’re looking for, and ask specific questions. For example:

• Does this include all of the information we need to communicate to customers?
• We’re trying out a lighthearted tone. How would you feel if the final draft ends up sounding something like this?
• I’m focusing on structure right now. Is this the right order to tell this story?
• I want to know what questions you think customers will have after reading this.

It helps to articulate for stakeholders where you are in the process, and to assure them that, yes, they’ll have a chance to see the final text, yes, it’s going to go through legal, yes, someone is going to proofread it, yes, they can see it before it goes live on the website, etc.

While careful framing helps, it won’t work for everyone. You may simply have to grin and bear it while they circle typos and missing ™ symbols. Other stakeholders will insist on seeing the writing in the design, or in the browser, or on paper—consider which delivery method will solicit useful feedback from the stakeholder in question. (And you’ll eventually learn that some people just can’t help you, no matter how you frame it.)

If you make changes based on the feedback, or just get unstuck, be sure to note that in your changelog, and let your collaborator know that they contributed. (Never assume that a stakeholder will remember what they told you when it comes time to approve the final text. Keep your receipts!)

Collaborate with others

Sometimes, for whatever reason, you just can’t quite figure out how to say what you’re trying to say. Or you’ve said it, and it’s blah. Time to bring in a fresh pair of eyes.

Collaborating with colleagues can be one of the quickest and most effective ways to help you get unstuck—or to unsuck a particularly rough passage. Even brief conversations can yield big outcomes.

A handy framing device for these collaborations is to ask, “How would you approach this?” That’s more freeing than “What’s the best way to write this?” and more forward-looking than “What’s wrong with this?”

Build a buddy system with other writers so you can bounce text off of each other regularly. Fellow designers can be collaborators, too—they can help you tease out whether you’re looking at a design problem, a writing problem, a product problem, or something else entirely. Running your drafts past coworkers also creates opportunities to learn from each other and to increase consistency in language and terminology.

Lock It In

Sometimes, the hardest part about editing is stopping. It can feel like there’s always more to improve upon, more people you should run the copy by, more of the word count you should trim away.

This is part of why we plan our writing workflow—editing rarely feels “done,” but if we’ve completed our workflow steps, it’s done enough. Eventually, you have to say: “This is the text. These are the words. We are moving forward with these words.”

You might not be there yet, and that’s okay. If editing helped you identify some gaps, you might need to move back to composing. If the text still feels really rough, you might need to add additional editing steps, or find a friend to help. And if it’s all a big mess, you might need to re-evaluate your assignment and prepare a fresh plan to get the writing done.

Eventually, though, you’ll be able to lock in your draft. If your writing assignment were a term paper, at this point you’d be able to hit Send (and then hit the bar…or the gym, or the beach, or the slopes, I don’t know your jam.). But in the world of design writing, we’re not done yet. To get the writing really and truly done, you have to Finish.