Whether you are a business looking for assistance with your written content, an author in the process of getting a book published, a student with an essay/dissertation/thesis that needs a fresh pair of eyes to check the language used in it or, in fact, anyone else with some writing that needs a good polish and tidy up, I have various different services that can help you:

  • Copy-editing
  • Proofreading
  • Combined proofreading and copy-editing
  • Document formatting

If you are a student who wishes to use my services for an essay, thesis or dissertation, please also see the additional information regarding academic works at the bottom of this page.

Not sure which service you need?

The details of each of my services are given below. However, if you aren’t sure which is the most appropriate, I’m happy to provide guidance. Please just get in touch.

Copy-editing

The copy-editing service I provide includes the following:

  • Identifying and correcting any spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, incorrect punctuation and typographical errors (typos).
  • Improving sentence structure, for flow, readability and comprehension, whilst bearing in mind a style-sheet if provided.
  • Ensuring consistency of terminology throughout the document.
  • Identifying any ambiguities in the document and correcting them once clarified.
  • Identifying and correcting unintentional changes in font type, style (e.g. bold, italic, underline) or size.
  • Identifying and correcting outstanding formatting errors (titles, headers/footers).
  • Checking page numbering, section numbering and table of contents (where applicable).
  • Identifying widows and orphans (single words at the beginning or end of a page).
  • Checking titles and captions for any diagrams or illustrations.

I will agree with you up front how much leeway you wish to give me with regard to suggesting and making wording changes; i.e. how lightly or heavily you want me to edit your document.

This service is really intended for books as a precursor to typesetting/formatting and proofreading before publishing. If you are a business that requires this level of editing on your documents, my combined proofreading/copy-editing service is more likely to be suitable for your needs.

Proofreading

My proofreading service is a final check of content before publishing/printing (such as for a book, a brochure or a restaurant menu), and assumes that a level of editing will have already been completed on the document. It will include the following:

  • Minimum changes for any spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, incorrect punctuation, and typographical errors (typos).
  • Identifying unintentional changes in font type, style (e.g. bold, italic, underline) or size.
  • Identifying outstanding formatting errors (titles, headers/footers).
  • Checking page numbering, section numbering and table of contents (where applicable).
  • Identifying widows and orphans (single words at the beginning or end of a page).
  • Checking titles and captions for any diagrams or illustrations.

Combined Copy-editing and Proofreading

The combined copy-editing and proofreading service (sometimes called proof-editing) I provide comprises all of the elements included in my copy-editing and proofreading services. It is intended as a ‘one-shot’ service (rather than using a two-stage process of separate copy-editing and proofreading). I would generally recommend this for any business documents (including website text), essays/theses/dissertations and any more personal documents such as CVs/cover letters.

Document Formatting

If you submit a document to me for copy-editing/proofreading that is in Microsoft Word, I am able to help you with formatting the document, if you wish. This includes use of styles for different levels of headers, labelling tables and figures, and creating tables of contents. This will be subject to an additional charge on top of my standard rates.

Additional Information Regarding Academic Works

If you wish me to copy-edit/proofread an academic document for you, whether that is an essay, thesis, dissertation or even an academic article for a journal, please note that I do not condone plagiarism in any way, shape or form. If I discover any item submitted to me for editing is plagiarised, I will cease work on it immediately (without returning any completed work), but it will still be subject to the charges detailed within the cancellation policy of my standard terms and conditions.

Please also note that I do not offer a rewriting service for academic work. Although I am happy to help you express your ideas more clearly, your ideas must remain your own and not anyone else’s (including mine).

The proofreading/copy-editing I will perform for any academic works will simply be to correct the English used. I will not check facts, nor will I correct anything if I believe, from my own knowledge, that it is factually incorrect. Also, although I am able to check the formatting of citations/references if you specify which referencing style has been used, I will not check that the information given in a citation/reference is correct, only that it is formatted correctly and given consistently throughout your document.