Should Your Copywriting Clients Track Changes?

April 10th, 2008 Dina at Wordfeeder.com

If you’re a copywriter, or someone who writes marketing communication (same thing, but we all have our preference for what we like to be called), do you invite your clients to Track Changes when reviewing the work?

(For those who are new to the lingo, Track Changes is an editing feature in MS Word. It changes the color of text that’s been added inserted, and adds a strikethrough to whatever you delete.)

Me, I’m pretty flexible and usually adapt to whatever way the client feels most comfortable working.

But I have to say that Track Changes, while convenient, comes with a downside.

If you have two or more people marking up a document, and some of those people line edit as they work… this can make the copywriting review process DRAG ON indefinitely.

Let’s say that you’ve written a paragraph that contains the word “swift.” Two sentences past that, is a sentence that the client feels the need to edit for whatever reason. He makes his changes, passes it back to you… and has also used the word “swift.”

Now you have to go back and edit his sentence. You replace the word “swift” with “rapid.” The rest of the copy looks good. You pass it back.

The client then takes another look at that paragraph, and something in the first sentence strikes him. So he line edits that.

Now, when you get it back, you notice that the first and second sentences both begin with a dependent clause.

(Example of a dependent clause:

About twenty years ago,…
Before I knew what I was doing,…)

This is not good writing, so you shift around some ideas and must resort to changing a sentence that previously caused no problems, but now it’s not flowing well with the rest of the text.

The client then spots something in the new sentence that he insists on meddling with…

(Do you see how this can go on indefinitely?)

I’m starting to think that it’s not such a good idea to have clients Track Changes when they review the copy. A much better idea would be for them to avoid editing at all, and simply write you a list of everything they have comments on or questions about.

The feedback that copywriting clients provide should cover:

Ideas expressed. Did you interpret their notes correctly and then properly convey the message?

Word choice. Do your turns of phrase match the target audience?

Branding. Do the concepts reflect their company philosophy and have you worked in their name enough times?

The sell. Does the copy persuade the reader to buy?

Line editing is unfortunately just another way to micro-manage projects, and yet the majority of companies allow everyone and their grandma to come by with a red pen, desecrate the draft, and waste a ton of time and energy.

The next time a copywriting client asks me if they should track changes, maybe I will kindly express to them my newly discovered preference. If they’re paying by the hour, hopefully they will appreciate this speedier and more efficient method of working.

What are your thoughts about the Track Changes feature? Love it? Hate it?

The copywriter wants to know.

- Dina at Wordfeeder.com Copywriting and Marketing

Popularity: 11% [?]

Posted in Copyediting, Marketing Communications, Wordfeeder Copywriting |

2 Responses to “Should Your Copywriting Clients Track Changes?”

1. Mark - Productivity501 Says:
   April 13th, 2008 at 9:53 pm

   It sounds like you might be better off sending a PDF and letting them mark that up with notes or something. That way they can’t change the actual text. I like the ability to see what changes were made by different editors. If you are sending files back and forth, it is probably better to leave the tracking turned on. Otherwise if they make two changes and forget to tell you about one, it may be easy to overlook and you could end up with something in the final copy that shouldn’t be there.

2. Dina Says:
   April 14th, 2008 at 11:24 am

   Hi Mark,

   That’s not a bad idea, maybe I’ll try it sometime.

   I’ve been the person on the receiving end of the designer’s PDF file. I have to say, it’s frustrating when you can’t put your hands right in the copy. I’d bet that my clients would feel frustrated by this too - and that they probably LOVE the Track Changes feature.

   Based on that fact alone, I guess I’d have to say that I’ll probably do nothing and let the clients who ask for it continue to Track Changes all willy nilly!

   Thanks for helping me think this through. :D

   Dina

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