COPYEDITING
Copyediting is a more in-depth process than proofreading. It involves all the surface-level checks I carry out for my proofreading clients, but also looks to improve the flow, structure, and readability of your written content.
My copyediting service looks to ensure your content is written and edited to the highest possible standard. Therefore, copyediting generally takes longer, and costs more, than proofreading.
If you feel your work has already been written and edited to a high standard and requires just a surface-level check to ensure no errors remain, please refer to my proofreading service for more information.
My copyediting service is not available to students. If you are a student looking for editorial support with your document(s), please refer to my proofreading service to see what I offer.
I charge a fixed rate of £14 per 1000 words (£0.014 per word) for my copyediting service. I charge a £14 fixed fee for documents under 1000 words. My rates are guided by those suggested by the Chartered Institute of Editors and Proofreaders (CIEP).
My copyediting service includes:
- working on raw/draft text
- rewording, rephrasing, or restructuring text, where necessary, for improved flow, tone, and intended readership
- checking for redundancy and wordiness
- checking for ambiguity
- checking for inappropriate colloquialisms
- checking for inappropriate jargon
- checking for contentious language
- ensuring consistent and appropriate tone of voice
- checking for repetitions or omissions
- making suggestions to completely rewrite a section
- checking for typos and errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar
- applying your house style (if applicable) and ensuring a style guide is adhered to
- ensuring consistency in style, eg tense, spelling variations, capitals, hyphens, date and time format, numbers, units of measurement, emphasis (eg bold or italics), straight or curly quotes, and single or double spacing after full stops
- checking numbering, titles, and descriptions for tables, figures, and illustrations
- checking for formatting errors, eg font, font size, and line and paragraph spacing
- checking title pages, contents, lists of illustrations, cross-references to in-text sections, appendices, indexes, footnotes, and pagination
- ensuring consistency in the use of regional English (UK or US)
- ensuring acronyms are presented correctly
- ensuring abbreviations are presented correctly
- ensuring references and citations are formatted consistently
- ensuring numbered and bulleted lists are formatted consistently
- verifying URLs
The most common format I work with is MS Word. I make corrections and suggestions, and note any queries, using the ‘Track Changes’ function. This allows you to see every correction and choose whether to ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ each one. I will also provide you with a ‘clean’ copy (ready to publish), which includes every change I’ve made, without any visible markup.
I also work with PDF files. I use the ‘Comment’ function (and associated annotation tools) in Adobe Acrobat Reader to annotate PDFs. However, there are restrictions when working with PDF files, and I can’t edit the text directly. Therefore, you will be required to return to your source file and manually implement the necessary amendments I’ve suggested.
For websites, I either request your source files (usually MS Word) or I can ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ the required website content into MS Word, and edit from there (using the ‘Track Changes’ function, as described above). You can then go through the 'accept' or 'reject' process, or use the 'clean' copy I provide, before you upload the amended text to your content management system.
My copyediting service does not include:
- content planning and development
- designing layouts or typesetting
- producing artwork and graphics
- research and fact-checking
- solving defamatory or other legal issues
- looking for plagiarism
- content creation
- checking the accuracy of references and citations
- substantial rewriting