People assume editing is mostly preference. It isn’t. If you handed the same document to five editors, they’d cut a lot of the same things. Because the same issues keep showing up. Here’s what that tends to look like. 1. The same point shows up twice You get a sentence that makes the point, followed by another that says the
Spring has sprung! The sun is out, flowers are blooming, an excessive amount of chocolate is being consumed in egg form, and it’s time for the annual spring clean. Wardrobes get sorted into keep, bin or donate. Inboxes reach zero (very, very briefly!). Your computer desktop is finally visible again. Less junk, less clutter, more space to focus on what
There’s a common assumption circulating in corporate comms that AI will reduce the need for editing. It sounds logical. If a tool can produce clean, clear copy in seconds, surely that removes some of the work around writing and reviewing it. In reality, it tends to do the opposite. Because while AI is very good at producing sentences, it’s not
In 1946, in his essay ‘Politics and the English Language’, George Orwell set out six simple rules for clear writing. They are quoted often. Followed less often. From an editorial perspective, they read less like literary advice and more like a checklist of the things that often go wrong in corporate documents every day. Here’s what they still get right.
Editing is often treated as the final tidy-up. A quick pass before something is published. In reality, it’s one of the most important decision points in the entire process. Once a document goes out, it becomes real. It can be quoted, shared, compared with earlier statements and picked apart by people who weren’t in the room when it was written.
Editing isn’t about better wording. It’s about deciding what the reader needs—and having the confidence to remove everything else.
Repeated tone issues and unclear messaging across reports aren’t just document errors—they reveal a deeper flaw in the editorial process itself.
Looking for expert support to document your live or virtual event? Accuracy Matters connects you with skilled writers who can attend your event, capture discussions and deliver polished content tailored to your goals. We’ve written in the past about our skills at matchmaking the right suppliers with the right project. This is especially true when searching for the right kind
At Accuracy Matters, we’ve been supporting clients with multi-volume, multi-author, complex suites of reports since we founded the business in 2012. Find out our top tips for staying calm and maximising efficiency during the project process. Prepare Take some time to prepare ahead of starting work – this will pay dividends later in the process. Think about some of the
Looking back, it was karma for my smugness. Two days before the deadline, I handed in one bound copy of my MA dissertation. I returned to my room and with a purr of satisfaction opened the other… only to spy, on the title page, the word ‘and’ spelled with a central M. It’s been unopened in a drawer ever since.
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