A scripted edit is not a safe edit
Bulk edits pass every count and quietly break meaning at the joins. Here is the check that catches it.
6 min read
Curious
0 XPYou are over your word count. A script deletes a paragraph from each section. Word count now passes, link count passes, structure passes.
And one section now opens with "If they come from public signup forms..." with nothing before it to say who "they" are.
The trim that broke four openings
A word-count trim deleted paragraphs by position across a batch. It removed each section's lead-in paragraph. One section was left starting on a bare pronoun with no antecedent anywhere. Three more were grammatically valid but suddenly abrupt. Word count, link count and structure checks all passed.
Cost: Four sections silently damaged, in articles that all the automated checks called clean.
The rule that came out of it. After any scripted edit, re-read the first sentence under every heading. Flag anything that opens with a bare pronoun or connective: "If they", "They", "Those", "These", "Then", "It", "Second", "Finally".
Inserting is not safer than deleting
This is the counter-intuitive half. A script that only adds paragraph breaks deletes nothing and cannot change any words, so it feels completely safe.
Twenty-five safe splits, three broken paragraphs
A script split over-long paragraphs by inserting a break at a sentence boundary. It deleted nothing. Twenty-five clean splits still produced three new paragraphs opening on a bare "It", because the antecedent had just moved two paragraphs away.
Cost: Three confusing openings in a batch that had already passed every check.
The rule that came out of it. Run the same bare-pronoun scan after inserting breaks, not only after deleting text. Name the subject explicitly at any new paragraph head.
Broken seam
- "If they come from public signup forms, expect a higher bounce rate."
- Who is "they"? The sentence that said so was two paragraphs up until a script moved it.
Named subject
- "If those email addresses come from public signup forms, expect a higher bounce rate."
- Four extra words. Now it survives any future edit that moves it.
Prefer rewriting shorter over deleting whole
A rewritten paragraph keeps the transition it was carrying. A deleted one takes the transition with it, and nothing in your checks will tell you.
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