January Tweets Offer Continued Evidence Of Editing Shortfalls
While B2B e-news editing mistakes are not widespread, they occur often enough to be a concern for editors who should know better. A need for improvement is clearly suggested by early scoring results of the 9th annual e-news study by Editorial Solutions, Inc. (ESI). Of 30 on-line packages reviewed so far, only six earned a passable basic editing grade.
The most common error is outbursts of consecutive 40-word and sometimes 50-word sentences. ESI’s study allows a maximum average sentence length (ASL) of 25 words.
Another common editing mishap is source-first/news-later introductory paragraphs. And then there are many sites where existing headlines could be replaced by newsier content buried farther down in the articles.
If you appreciate being reminded of possible editing technique improvements, like those that follow, be sure to visit me on Twitter.
Phase IX B2B E-News-Study Update: Article average sentence length must equal 25 words or less to earn decent score. Many sites are right on the edge. Key fix: long winded quotes via PR sources — 40 words or more — need editing.
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) January 28, 2021
Source first/news later e-news opening paragraph construction continues to plague B2B online sites. Anecdotal intros are another problem — sometimes wasting 100 or more words before reaching key story point.
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) January 26, 2021
E-News Home Runs Require Depth. Many B2B Editors Are Striking Out https://t.co/W9OJd9Z1v2
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) January 22, 2021
Hitting more e-news article home runs requires depth editors may be unable to provide. Shortly I’ll confirm this claim based on 30 sites scored so far (out of targeted 50) for my 9th annual B2b study. More details coming soon.
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) January 21, 2021
RT fogindex8 “Phase XI e-news study update: Most sites reviewed so far have a decent Fog Index. But readability would be even easier if we made war on 40- and 50-word sentences. 40-word is barely acceptable; 50-word is rarely digestible.”
— Howard Rauch (@editsol) January 19, 2021
When writing an article covering speaker at upcoming event, headline should go beyond mentioning person’s name. Instead preview a newsworthy focus speech will address. Head using name alone is insufficient.
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) January 19, 2021
Phase IX B2B e-news survey update. 28 sites scored so far (out of targeted 50) delivered 271 direct quotes. That’s 9 per site –actually not so good. Much worse is End-User-Visibility (EUV). Only 71 quotes are end-user-sourced.
— Howard Rauch (@fogindex8) January 13, 2021