Editing and Proofreading – preparing your copy for publication
Good spelling, correct grammar, and well-constructed sentences. They may smack of the classroom, but in business they can mean the difference between winning and losing clients.
It might seem pedantic but checking your business communications for errors is crucial. You want to be sure that readers are concentrating on what you are offering them. Not on the spelling error they just found on your website.
Even tweets and short social media updates need a little careful scrutiny before you hit the share button.
Longer items, especially those going to print, where errors cannot be rectified after completion, will break your heart – and possibly your wallet – if they contain mistakes. Reprinting is a costly business!
If you’ve written any kind of content for your business, and you want it checked to ensure that it’s up to scratch, makes sense to your audience, and that the punctuation is where it should be, we will be able to provide that service for you.
Editing your documents – what are we looking for?
First we will need to look over a sample of the text involved – That lets us determine the level of checking and correcting that’s involved. Some texts may need a simple proofread, whilst others might require a fair amount of intervention.
We discuss what we recommend with the client and agree what we’re going to do.
Editing will involve a number of checks:
- Grammar, spelling, sentence construction.
- Consistency, eg is the punctuation after bullets the same across the document; have capitals been used the same way throughout?
- Is the information arranged in a logical fashion that makes sense to the reader?
- Does the text conform to any style guide requirements?
- Does it all make sense and flow well?
As you will imagine, some manuscripts will need more attention than others, so it will be essential to see a sample before fixing a fee.
Proofreading
Proofreading is the final sweep through an item, usually after it has been typeset by a designer. Proofreaders look for missed spelling errors or inconsistencies. They keep an eye out for ‘widows’ and ‘orphans’ – odd lines or words that fall awkwardly across pages, and which make the text look disjointed and ugly.
For printed items, a final read-through of your finished article in proof form just before the printer hits ‘go’ is an essential stage in the print process. NEVER skip it. You can make a quick amendment if something slips through a on your website. That’s impossible when you’re staring at a box of brochures and the phone number is wrong!
We can help with the whole process, from editing to proofreading, and on through to publication if required.