Copy Editing

• You have existing copy — a landing page, email sequence, sales page, or ad — and want it sharpened, not replaced.
• Your copy is functional but feels flat, vague, or inconsistent in tone and you need a systematic way to diagnose and fix it.
• You're doing a content audit or refresh: stats are stale, the product has changed, or brand voice has drifted since the original was written.
• You've just finished a first draft and need a structured editing pass before publishing — especially for high-stakes copy like pricing pages or launch emails.

• You need copy written from scratch — use the copywriting skill instead.
• You need structural or strategic page changes beyond the copy itself — use the page-cro skill.
• The content is very low-stakes (internal notes, quick one-liner updates) where a full seven-sweep process would be overkill.

Edits are structured as seven sequential passes: Clarity, Voice & Tone, So What, Prove It, Specificity, Heightened Emotion, and Zero Risk. Each sweep focuses on one dimension, and after each pass the skill checks that earlier sweeps haven't been compromised — catching cascading issues that a single-pass review misses.

For high-stakes copy, the skill assembles 3–5 expert personas (e.g. conversion copywriter, UX writer, target customer, brand strategist) who each score the copy 1–10 and provide specific critiques. Revisions continue until all personas score 7+ with an average of 8+ across the panel.

When a full seven-sweep process isn't warranted, the skill applies targeted word-, sentence-, and paragraph-level checks: cutting filler words, replacing weak vocabulary, enforcing active voice, and ensuring scannability for web.

If a product-marketing-context.md file exists in your project, the skill reads it before editing and uses your brand voice guidelines and customer language to inform every edit — keeping improvements on-brand rather than generic.

Beyond new copy, the skill handles aging pages where stats are stale, examples are outdated, or product descriptions no longer match reality. A refresh vs. rewrite decision framework helps determine the right level of intervention.

The skill recognizes named anti-patterns — Wall of Features, Corporate Speak, Weak Opening, Buried CTA, No Proof, Mixed Audiences — and applies targeted fixes rather than generic suggestions.

Run the seven sweeps on a product landing page to catch vague benefit statements, unsupported claims, and weak CTAs before it goes live. The Expert Panel step is especially useful here, scoring the page from the perspectives of a conversion copywriter, UX writer, and a target customer persona.

Apply the framework to an onboarding or nurture email sequence to ensure consistent tone across messages, tighten subject lines, verify that every feature claim bridges to a real reader benefit, and check for deliverability red flags.

For pages where traffic is declining or the product has evolved, use the content refresh mode to identify outdated stats, drifted brand voice, and stale examples — and edit them back to current without a full rewrite.

After writing a first draft with the copywriting skill (or manually), run the copy-editing skill to tighten word choice, remove filler, ensure proof backs every claim, and confirm the CTA is clear and friction-free before handing off.