An Editor Spins Her Thoughts about Web Content

A glossy magazine placed an advertisement on its Web site, targeting the publication’s upscale subscribers. The expensive ad emphasized how perfect the tiniest detail would be for guests who stayed at a certain very fancy hotel. There was only one small problem in the ad, but it was big enough to undermine the credibility of the hotel’s claim to perfection. The headline blared,

When Everything Has to Just Right

Uh-oh. What happened to the “Be” before the “Just Right”?

You may be losing business or hurting your professional reputation by sending out unedited Web site copy. Text that is riddled with errors will distract present or potential clients. The reader will think, do I really want to buy a product or service from someone whose copy is sloppy?

Misplaced modifiers, dangling participles, your’s/yours, two/to/too, and other hair-raising/hare-raising errors will melt away once an editor goes to work. Skilled editors say that mistakes “leap off the page” at them. And potential clients will leap off the couch to e-mail or call you because of your magnetic Web site copy.

When Web content is launched into the stratosphere raw and unedited, unfortunate occurrences happen:
• A national eNewsletter goes out with the headline “For Pubic School Educators”
• “And as we stand on the toes [should be “shoulders”] of those who have gone before us” appears in a scholarly piece
• The non-word its’ [there is no apostrophe after “its”] works its way into a story
• “We’d like to pedal [should be “peddle”] your ideas” surfaces in a magazine ad

Shape up your Web site text to ensure that your message is conveyed beautifully.
In the twinkling of a well-trained eye, a topnotch editor can clean up your Web site copy so it sparkles in the sunlight.


Linda Jay Geldens
*Helping clients communicate their message with style*
LindaJay@aol.com
www.LindaJayGeldens.com