Karen Hansen
Writing & Editing
Sample Edit
My editing philosophy is that it is my job to help authors build their relationships with their audiences. Good editing bridges writers’ thoughts and ideas with readers’ needs. I have succeeded as an editor if a writer walks away feeling heard and readers never know I was there.
There was a great story lurking in this sample column that just needed a little polish to bring it out! It was a pleasure to work on.
Looking for a writer or editor?
Let’s chat about how I can help you achieve your storytelling goals!
Here’s a little bit about my process.
For individual articles, here are the key questions I ask during the editing process:
- What’s the connection to the audience? Why do I care, why now and what’s next?
- For this article, I assumed a certain publication date and focused on something at the forefront of the public consciousness right now.
- What’s the structure (flow, tension/resolve, chronology, wrap around story, web accessibility)?
- A current events hook adds timeliness but is general enough this can be relatively evergreen with a few tweaks.
- I added “chapter” headings to give the story structure and inset quotes to help guide the eye when reading on a screen.
- What’s the readability?
- Before: 710 words; 20.6% complex; average 19.8 words per sentence. Flesch Kincaid – 45/11.9; Gunning Fog – 14.6; SMOG – 11.7; Colman Liau – 13.7
- After: 665 (excluding headings and inset quotes); 17.9% complex; average 18.5 words per sentence. Flesch Kincaid – 52/10.6; Gunning Fog – 12.8; SMOG – 10.5; Coleman Liau – 12.9 (Still room to improve, but much better!)
- What’s the promotion and repurposing potential? 50% of content is creating it, 50% is getting eyes on it! I’d picture collaborating with the social media team on these aspects.
- Possible Headlines/subheads (for social sharing and web, depending on digital platform):
- When gathering wasn’t safe / How one Supreme Court case paved the way for the right to associate
- It wasn’t always legal or safe to gather – and not because of COVID / How the civil rights movement set the precedent for the right to associate
- Social media ideas
- Quote graphics using the two inset quotes
- Use historical images of the period to create a slider-style story
- Repurposing ideas:
- Create an animated video, storyboard or graphic novel (or all 3!)
- Use historical images to create an interactive timeline
- Create a choose-your-own-adventure version where users can choose which character (Patterson, Carter or Harlan) to follow and see the potential implications of different outcomes
- Possible Headlines/subheads (for social sharing and web, depending on digital platform):
My process would vary a bit with each writer’s preferences. They’re the authors, and as the “translator,” I’m there to shape their expert ideas into an accessible finished product. This edit reflects the process with a fairly open and flexible contributor, but I’d still likely suggest the edits in two passes: one for hook and structure, and a second pass for readability. Of course, it’s always a matter of balancing mission and relationships. I’d envision proactively working with contributors to build a common understanding and buy-in for an accessible storytelling style as follows:
Medium-term content strategy development:
- Develop an article brief to guide concept development.
- Develop a tone and style guide.
- Incorporate storytelling components: characters, unique voices, personal narratives and other content styles.
- Build audience: Who is already reaching the audience(s) we want to reach and how can we leverage those people/orgs as messengers?
- Define CTA(s).
Longer-term content strategy steps:
- Develop audience personas.
- GSOT exercise to define goals, strategies, objectives and tactics (recurring).
- Invest in discoverability (SEO, earned media, inbound marketing).