How I take blocks of Text and edit it into an Article

Blog Article Editing My process for turning blocks of text into ar ticles.

Blocks of text. When I’m “handed” an article by one of my contributors at AnonymousGeek.com it has no formatting whatsoever. However, it is a wealth of information about the topic. Great for Google, Bing, and the other search engines, but not so great for today’s reader. Today’s reader expects an ultra-fast, easy-to-read, magazine experience.

Editing MUST Follow the voice of the article! • You cannot use a standard template for every article on your blog, unless you write a “How to (blank) in (blank) (blank)” blog, for example “How to lose a guy in 10 days” • My number one contributor and one of my closest friends, a co-founder for AnonymousGeek (I’ve known this guy for over 10 years and he’s been writing articles for me for almost 5 years), writes in various styles based on his subject matter.

Editing MUST Follow the voice of the article! • It’s my responsibility as his editor to pick up on that and edit the article accordingly. Sometimes he writes a piece that follows a magazine review format, but sometimes he writes a piece that is more like a basic text book. • Let’s take a look at how to handle those differences!

Magazine Review • For a magazine styled review, I choose some of the most suitable, high quality pictures I can find (even if I have to make them myself) and will usually include some emphasized dramatic quotes as part of a style element. • “If you lead with an amazing quote from the last half of your article, readers will seek it out.”

Text-Book Style (teach your reader something) • Bullet points • are great separators 1. Number points 2. can eliminate needless words 3. and break up the text of the article 4. to give your reader a break.

Text-Book Style (teach your reader something) • Bolding and underlining words that are being defined help reinforce terms you are teaching that may be unfamiliar to the reader. • Editing should help drive the author’s point home to their reader. Which is your reader too.

Keep things simple and classy. • This is 2014, not 1998. Keep things simple and classy. It’s best to take a look at some of the most lasting print magazines to draw some inspiration. • Don’t over edit! • Let the finished article deliver the author’s message clearly. For more like this, connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/doyleclark/