Editing, A Lost Art

I have made no secret about the fact that I am a writer. It's my greatest joy. I love to write. You can look at my site (www.americanstudio.net) and see what I mean. I blog and build pages all the time. But, the more I write, the more I am likely to make a mistake. Wrong spelling, syntax error, double words and so on. Auto correct and red underlines can only do so much.

That's where editing comes in. Whether I am posting on my blog or building a page, there is a button on the right that says "Review." That button will open what I have written so far in a page that looks like my site, thereby allowing me to see what the visitor will see. It's a great editing tool.

I can look it over for mistakes. And I do. Sometimes some slip by and I catch them later, but most of the time I find them right there. I can also see the flaws of my layout. By the time I finish a blog that contains 700 to 900 words, I have looked at the review option about a dozen times. You can never do that too much by the way.

Despite the fact that I am a writer by love and choice, and that I have had a few items published (nothing you've ever heard of), I make plenty of mistakes. But I have learned that editing can be my best friend. Because we are all making websites, we can edit later. We have the chance to see our mistakes a week later and fix them. The digital age is wonderful, isn't it?

Here's the problem. There are people just like me all over the world. They get on a website, expecting total professionalism and find things like poor spelling. Bad grammar. Incomplete sentences. Messy syntax. All these things that a professional website would never have. You know, the kind where someone has repeatedly edited it to ensure it looks like a pro built it. Your finished product reflects upon you.

The lesson I have gotten from this? I would second guess my purchasing on a site that has trouble spelling 4 and 5 letter words or leaves out words causing me to guess what is being said. Just my thoughts...

Of course, I am only referring to my own work.