Lois Summers, Writer & Editor. Wordsweave.com -- helping words shine.
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Editing: Editor for Hire

Why hire an editor?

Grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors take readers out of the reading experience by drawing attention to the errors rather than the message. Editors find and fix those errors.

Errors can make the writer appear uneducated and unprofessional. If a business is careless about what it publishes, readers may wonder if it's as careless with the products or services provided.

Error correction is just one level of editing. Sentences, paragraphs, and pages need to work together. People with good English grammar don't necessarily have the skills or training to organize and present content well. If key points are missing, buried, or unclear, readers may not keep reading.

Editing services I offer

Some spellings, words, expressions, and types of punctuation change depending on the country. I edit using the style of the country the client is in. I can also use an international style — I select the spelling, word choice, or punctuation style that's the most common in English-speaking countries, as I did for this site.

Copyediting
  • Correct grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation errors.
  • Check that spelling and usage (e.g., capitalization, use of the serial comma) are consistent.
  • Check headings, captions, cross-referencing, and sequencing (order) to make sure that they work with the rest of the text.
  • Suggest wording changes and sentence reorganization.
  • Find unclear details or references and ask the author to add more information.

Substantive editing (developmental editing)
  • Create an outline if there isn't one to make sure the structure is logical.
  • Suggest changes to content format (e.g., adding headings, lists, tables, diagrams), where suitable.
  • Suggest additions, deletions, and reordering.
  • Eliminate wordiness and inappropriate jargon.
  • Look for any content gaps.
  • Identify any content that may be outdated, offensive to some readers (e.g., sexist or racist), or illegal (e.g., copyright infringement).
  • Look for inconsistencies in tone, and make sure the tone suits the audience.

ESL (English as a Second Language) support
  • The ESL support I offer is partly but not only editing. See the ESL Support page for details.

Proofreading and style sheets
  • I proofread my work before giving it to you.
  • I create or work with an existing style sheet (a list of house style spellings and style choices to provide consistency).

With my publishing background, I can also suggest changes to page layout and appearance to help present the text more effectively.

Contact me to discuss your editing needs.

Related pages at this site


What Editors Fix

See also Common ESL Writing Mistakes.

Grammar and sentence structure

  • Run-on sentences
  • Unclear antecedents
  • Faulty parallelism
  • Lack of subject-verb agreement
  • Incorrect singular or plural nouns and pronouns
  • Confusion between restrictive and non-restrictive clauses
  • Unintended double meanings
  • Unnecessary passive construction
  • Wordiness

Punctuation

  • Missing or inconsistent use of commas
  • Missing or unnecessary hyphens
  • Missing or unnecessary apostrophes
  • Incorrect punctuation order

Content

  • Poorly organized paragraphs
  • Missing or hard-to-find information
  • Format choices that don't suit the content, i.e., paragraphs instead of lists, tables, or diagrams
  • Unclear transitions
 
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