Picture this: you’ve just developed the antidote to Monday-itis, worked out how to make vegetables taste like chocolate cake and the secret to making the horrors of rush hour go away. You’re the Leonardo da Vinci of the current problem-solving era and you’re willing to provide your genius to the world.
But here’s the twist of the tale: when you attempt to explain these global-altering concepts, your language comes out as if it were translated into English, translated to Martian, then back to English again by a person who learned both languages by reading fortune cookies and IKEA instructions manuals.
Your great ideas are swanking around in dirty clothes, mismatched footwear and what looks like yesterday morning’s munchies on their figurative shirt. Indeed, the concepts behind them are as brilliant as they are, but it’s hard to elicit one single reader to bother until the presentation resembles the realization of a wrestling match with a dictionary.
Welcome to the marvelous world of marvelous ideas buried in not-so marvelous writing.
The Great Communication Catastrophe
And here’s the painful fact about most business writing: it reads like a committee of robots who were taught to communicate with humans exclusively with the help of corporate newsletters and legal disclaimers. Even where the underlying meaning is brilliant, the search to produce the effect of cleverness often piles it under heaps of irrelevant jargon, tortuous syntax and that artificial fog of the passive voice, which makes everything sound as though it had happened to itself by accident.
You get the drift: “It was established that the optimization of our customer-centric solutions can be conducted through application of strategic initiatives that will optimize use experience on multi-touch points.”
Translation: “We’re trying to make our customers happier.”
The tragedy? Listen behind all that corporate word salad, and you usually find someone with something truly insightful to say who’s just not learned how to communicate his/her ideas in a way that doesn’t require a decoder ring and three cups of coffee to get a clue.
When Good Ideas Go Bad (Grammatically Speaking)
The human brain is so gracious in its quest to understand even in the ill written material up to a point. We’re able to automate the correction of small-scale mistakes, restructure the difficult sentences, even interpret corporate language into understandable language. However, it has a limit beyond which the intellectual brunt that we require to comprehend your message is more than the value that we attach to information.
It’s like trying to converse with someone who keeps talking with a mouthful of marshmallows. You may finally learn what they’re attempting to convey, but sooner or later, you’re going to conclude that it’s not worth the effort, and you’ll find someone who can share their brain clearly without the aid of an interpreter.
In an ADD digital era, where your readers are continuously making split-second decisions on whether your content is worthy of their valuable time, this is particularly true. When your beautiful images end up hidden behind ugly, big language, the majority of people will pass over them nearly as quick as they would run through ads on YouTube.
The Art of Invisible Excellence
Professional copy editing is like engaging a personal stylist of ideas. It doesn’t alter what you got to say – it just ensures that your message gets to the party well dressed and ready to make an impression.
Copy editing is so effective when the readers don’t even know they’re reading edited copy. They never say “Woah, this guy’s obviously made use of professional editing.” They say “Wow, this is a person who understands how to speak effectively and clearly.”
Copy editing changes ungrammatical wordings to flowing language. It converts waffling sentences into tight, kick-ass lines. It takes your stream-of-thought draft and puts it in a logical flow, giving the reader a smooth ride to point B without being lost in the weeds anywhere along the trail.
The Psychology of Polished Communication
When one reads a well-edited copy, his or her brain isn’t pushed to its limits in order to understand what one is reading or figure out challenging sentences. This informal comfort establishes a perceptual positive effect – readers feel subconsciously that if the writing style is easy to follow, then the thought process must be simple too.
On the flip side, when the readers struggle to understand awkward, unclear or poorly organized texts, their brains need to work much more to derive meaning. This additional work does not only decrease the likelihood that they’ll finish reading; it also reduces the likelihood that they’ll trust or remember what you have to say.
Professional copy editing clears these sources of friction and your ideas can pour out of your brain and into the heads of your audience without getting bogged down in a grammatical rutted road or a stylistic traffic jam.
The Competitive Communication Advantage
As others are posting something that reads like it was composed during a caffeine fueled episode at 2AM, you can be delivering well-crafted and convincing messages that instantaneously generate trust and keep the reader reading to the end to take action.
Pro copy editing puts you ahead in the attention economy. In an era when everybody is fighting over eyeballs and engagement, the fact that what they read is not only right but also enjoyable to read is like showing up to a casual Friday event with an impeccably tailored suit – you stand out in all the right ways.
The Transformation Factor
Copy editing does more than correct errors – it enhances strengths. A fine copy editor can turn your gushing exposition into a cogent, convincing argument. They can communicate your technical skill and bring it into words that your real customers can relate to and be interested in.
The purpose is not to alter your voice or to water down your message; it’s to help your true expertise come through without being distracted by matters of writing.
The Bottom Line (Clearly Stated)
Your ideas shouldn’t be subjected to being confined in strange, insensible or simply dull presentation. And you have so much to contribute – don’t have it trapped in a pocket where no one will ever hear them.
Ready to give your brilliant ideas the polished presentation they deserve? Check out Workvix.com and discover what happens when your message finally gets to wear the perfectly tailored suit of professional copy editing. Your readers (and your credibility) will thank you.
