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Our Editing Services

Editing is a broad category of activities, and an explanation of its facets may help you decide what work needs to be done to your manuscript. Our services are:

• Developmental editing
• Copyediting
• Proofreading
• Editorial Proofreading
• Thesis and dissertation editing

Our rates for each of these services are here.

Developmental Editing

Developmental editing, sometimes called substantive editing, involves organizing the writing, sometimes before the document is written. This work can include moving sections or sentences, writing headings, identifying gaps in content and suggesting or writing needed material, and determining the style and general content of graphics or tables. Developmental editing does not include copyediting or proofreading.

Copyediting

Copyediting is done on manuscripts whose writing and organization are considered complete. Errors in grammar are corrected, incorrect cross-references are resolved or queried, and a style sheet (a list of style conventions that are used in the work) is prepared. Copyediting may be classified as “light,” “medium,” or “heavy.”

Light Copyediting

Light copyediting involves:

• Correcting grammar, usage, spelling, punctuation
• Checking cross-references
• Correcting inconsistent spelling, hyphenation, fonts, and capitalization
• Ensuring alphabetizing and numbering sequences are correct

A light copyedit does not involve rewriting headings or text for consistency; only omissions in text are noted.

Medium Copyediting

Medium copyediting involves:

• All tasks in a light copyedit
• Rewriting headings and text to ensure consistency or parallel structure
• Marking figures of speech that may be trite or inappropriate
• In a thesis or dissertation, ensuring references are formatted according to required conventions (APA, MLA, etc.)
• In fiction works, querying inconsistencies in characters, settings, and plot.
• In a multi-author work, ensuring that style and tone are consistent
• If requested, converting passive voice to active
• Querying ambiguous or inconsistent statements

Heavy Copyediting

Heavy copyediting verges on a substantive edit. It involves improving the flow of the writing, and may involve rewriting passages rather than just flagging them. In fiction work especially, this must be accomplished without affecting the author’s tone or style. Tasks include:

• All tasks in a medium copyedit
• In a thesis or dissertation, querying the author if an in-text citation is not in the references list, and if a reference list item is not cited in the text
• Removing wordiness, trite expressions, and jargon inappropriate for the audience
• Changing the locations of sentences and rewriting transitions to increase readability
• Ensuring logical structure by adjusting heading levels
• Suggesting the addition or removal of paragraphs and sentences, or querying them, as needed

Proofreading

A manuscript ready for proofreading has already been edited and copyedited, so a proofreader usually does not check for writing errors or inconsistencies. The proofreader either checks the work of a typesetter against a manuscript to correct typing errors and flag editorial errors, or checks a single manuscript for typos, bad word breaks, missing punctuation, incorrect word spacing, and similar problems.

Editorial Proofreading

An “editorial proofreading” accomplishes the same tasks as a regular proofreading, but also involves some of the copyediting tasks, including correcting misspellings, incorrect word usage, or incorrect cross-references. The editorial proofreader does not correct language or marginally incorrect punctuation unless requested to.

Thesis and Dissertation Editing

We are experienced in developmental editing, copyediting, and proofreading theses and dissertations, and in correcting work to ensure it complies with APA format, MLA format, and graduate school requirements. Ensuring your thesis or dissertation follows APA format or MLA format involves two main tasks: correcting organization, terminology, and usage, and formatting the text, headings, captions, and reference list properly.

Our familiarity with editing and copyediting using the APA and MLA writing format guides enables us to edit your paper for conformity to their writing styles. For basic instructions on the second task, formatting, see APA and MLA Format Examples. That section gives step-by-step procedures and sample documents in Word 2003 and 2007 formats.