MyFrenchLife editing checklist

Bienvenue to the MyFrenchLife editing checklist! 

This is designed to assist you when editing articles for our magazine. Please consider each point very carefully – we want our content to be the best it can be.

1. Content & relevance

• Is the article suited to our audience?
• Has this topic or angle already been covered on our magazine?
• Is the topic of interest? Could it be ‘livened up’ or angled differently to increase its interest?
• How does the layout or format add to the reading experience or narrative? Could a different approach or layout enhance the content? (e.g. transforming it to a list)
• Refer to our guide to editing for MyFrenchLife for more information on our audience!

Before moving to step two:

Ask yourself whether the article requires heavy editing to meet the above points. If it does, we will generally send it back to the author with some suggestions for how they can revise it. Please email us with your suggestions, and we’ll pass these onto the author.

If you’re happy that you can edit the article without changing too much of the content, proceed to step two.

2. Structural editing

• Does the narrative flow logically?
  • Would rearranging the order of certain sections improve the flow?
  • Think about the various ways you could restructure: chronological narrative isn’t the only option!
• Should certain sections be given more emphasis?
  • Have important ideas been teased out enough?
  • Is there one clear narrative, or has the writer tried to focus on too many things at once?
  • If so, which is the most interesting aspect?
• Could certain sections be removed?
• Could the opening or conclusion be improved?
  • Could the order of ideas be rearranged to put a more interesting item right up front to draw the reader in?
• Does the reader have enough information to understand all aspects of the article without any prior knowledge?

3. SEO

Learn more on SEO by reading our ‘Online guide to online content‘.

• Has the focus keyword or phrase been included enough times?
  • Throughout the text
  • In the title
  • In at least two subheadings
• Are there at least 2-3 internal links?
• Are there at least 2-3 external links?
  • Are they good quality?
  • Are they well-ranked sites? (Check website ranking on Alexa.com)

4. Copy editing

• Has the writer adhered exactly to our article checklist & style guide?
• Are there any spelling or grammatical errors?
• Could the phrasing be revised in any places to make the article clearer or easier to read?
• Do any long paragraphs or sentences need to be broken up?

5. Where to next?

Please send your sub-edit back to us with clear feedback for the author in dot-point form. Please also outline how much you had to change in the article: do you think we need to seek the author’s approval or input before moving on? If so, let us know.

Otherwise, please email us your feedback and sub-edit, then…

If you’re a training editor…

Please stop here! We’ll advise you as to the next step.

If you’re a super editor…

Email us your feedback and sub-edit, and then move onto the next step in the editing process yourself:

Formatting & using the SEO plugin in WordPress

Please click here to read our guide to formatting.