Copyediting

Working with you on your draft text to enhance the flow, readability and quality of your writing and get it ready for design and layout or final formatting. The checks and changes at this stage will depend on what shape your text is in, the time available and your budget. I will recommend what is needed once I have seen at least a sample, and we will then agree on the tasks to be undertaken.

Example editing tasks include:

• checking for spelling, punctuation and grammar errors

• making the text consistent by applying your own house style or agreeing style choices (and I’ll list these in a stylesheet for you to use in future)

• making suggestions to improve flow, readability and clarity, to suit a particular readership or to replace jargon

• marking any content that’s missing, incomplete or in the wrong order (such as no captions, tables numbered wrongly, missing references in a bibliography)

• querying possible factual errors

• flagging potential legal or sensitivity issues

• marking up the structure of the text so it’s ready for design and layout, such as heading levels, boxed text and features, displayed quotes and image placeholders