editing
Whether you're a newbie or skilled writer in English,
I'll take a deep dive into your work to help you get your message across.
A professional editor usually comes in once your text has been fully drafted and/or rewritten. It contains a structure, there’s a “big picture”, and the story makes sense. The job of an editor now involves focusing on the writing style and quality to ensure that you drive the message home.
Different texts need to be adapted to their respective readerships. For instance, contractions (e.g., isn’t, can’t, it’s) are perfectly acceptable in creative fiction or non-fiction texts. In academic or scientific writing, however, a formal tone (e.g., is not, was not, it is) is more appropriate.
Also, regardless of the type of text you are working on, you should always use clear and concise language and avoid complicated sentence structures. This makes it easier for the reader to follow your line of thought or argument. Just because you’re dealing with a complex topic doesn’t mean that you have to use complicated language.
What you get:
1. A complete line-by-line edit
When I put my editor hat on, I check your document for the following:
- spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors or inconsistencies (= full proofreading)
- coherence
- appropriate writing style and intended readership (but don’t worry, I will make sure to maintain your “voice”)
- repetitions
- omissions
- references cross-check (all citations appear in the main text and bibliography and vice versa)
2. Comments and suggestions
I’ll use the comment function in Word to explain some of my changes, inform you about which rules apply, or point out areas that may require further revision on your part.
At the end you will receive two versions of your edited document from me:
- “Changes visible”: Your edited text with Track Changes recorded. You’ll see the entire markup and have the opportunity to accept or reject any of my changes using the Review tab in Word. In the end, the final decision on any suggested changes lies with you, the author and creator.
- “Clean”: Identical to the “Changes visible” version, except that all my changes have already been accepted. This version is much easier to read because you’ll only see my comments in the review pane.
If you’re not familiar with Track Changes in Word, check out the guide in my Writing Tips.
3. Style sheet
If you didn’t send me a style sheet detailing your document’s style decisions on hyphenation, numbering, capitalization, spelling, and punctuation, I’ll create one for you.
Don’t know what a style sheet is? See my article on style sheets, why they are important and why I include them in all my proofreading and editing services.
4. Editorial feedback
I’ll give you a professional assessment of your text, including a few useful comments and suggestions to help you improve your writing in the future.
Find out the differences between proofreading and editing and learn more about the types of documents I edit.
Got a thesis or dissertation that you would like to have professionally edited? Then you might be interested in my article on the ethics regarding hiring an academic editor.
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