What I offer

I offer three types of editing, depending on clients’ needs and the state of the document. Naturally, there are endless shades of variation within and between these three categories, but these terms give us a place to get started.

Substantive editing

This kind of editing is often like solving a puzzle. How can I best help shape your thoughts into a clear story while maintaining your voice? It involves:

• Looking at the form, structure, flow, story and argument of the whole document
• Reordering, rewriting, condensing or asking for more detail as needed
• Correcting language faults and non-native usage

Copy editing

This kind of editing is smoothing off the rough edges of a work and making it flow. It is the most common type of editing, especially for non-native writers. It usually includes:

• Focusing mostly on the language, leaving the existing structure (mostly) in place
• Checking if the test flows and is logical and making minor rearrangements of sentences if needed
• Checking consistency
• Correcting language faults and non-native usage

Proofreading

This is the place for my nit-picky tendencies, the part of me that gets bothered if punctuation in bulleted lists is not consistent throughout a document. It is the simplest form of editing, but very important. It is often the last check for already edited work or for very confident writers who need another eye to check for errors that might have escaped their attention. It involves:

• Finding and fixing smaller errors
• Ensuring that chosen styles are consistent
• If there is a style guide, making sure that the document follows it

 

Experience

Editing others’ work has been part of my entire career. This has included:

• Experience with all three levels of editing for documents including correspondence, marketing materials, technical documents, academic papers, theses and a variety of reports
• Editing a book, UBCM: The First Century, at all three levels (as well as writing parts of it and managing its production)
• Clients in the Netherlands such as Royal HaskoningDHV (planning and permitting) and the ROAD Carbon Capture Storage project (a large document involving both technical and financial sections) and the Mr. Hans Van Mierlo Stichting (academic political science papers)
• Work as a volunteer editor for ILEIA, and then as a paid editor and writer, on publications such as The Global Dialogue on Family Farming.