Details Matter

Express your ideas with clear, coherent, and concise writing

Your ideas Your research Your hard work

It’s easy to miss the details—errors of grammar, spelling, and punctuation that can take the shine off your writing. I will make sure your writing is error-free, polished, and professional.

Copyediting

Copyediting ensures clear, concise, accurate text reaches your reader so your writing comes through at its best. That is my focus: to review your text with your reader in mind.

Light copyediting: I provide a foundational review to ensure your manuscript is rendered error-free. The following elements are reviewed:

appropriate spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation, capitalization, hyphenation
appropriate and consistent language usage
adherence to the applicable style manual, typically Chicago Manual of Style
your intended meaning is clear as written
clear and consistent use of abbreviations and acronyms
potentially inconsistent or inaccurate facts are pointed out
pages with material that may require permission to reprint are pointed out
accurate numbering of footnotes, tables, and figures

Medium copyediting: I provide a complete light copyediting review, as well as identify and make suggestions for adjustments to any unclear, wordy, or imprecise sentences.

I prepare a style sheet, which will document copyediting decisions for your future use to ensure consistency.

I work with fiction and nonfiction. I respect your voice and understand the attributes of your manuscript are unique. Open communication between the author and copy editor is the basis for ensuring the best outcome. I copyedit nonfiction books and articles of a general nature, academic papers in social sciences and literature, commercial copy and business documents, as well as website copy.

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Proofreading

It’s all about credibility. Overlooked errors in published material, whether in print or on the web, weaken the credibility of the content in your reader's eyes. Proofreading is essential prior to publication to ensure that errors, which could prove embarrassing, do not make it into print.

Proofreading is similar to copyediting but is completed later in the review process, once the manuscript has been copyedited and prepared to move toward publication. I closely review your final copy to ensure all desired changes have been made to the text. I make sure there are no residual mechanical errors in spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation, capitalization, and hyphenation.

I recommend that your writing undergo copyediting prior to proceeding with final proofreading. However, if you are confident your copy is ready for final proofreading, even without having been professionally copyedited, I would review a sample and, if I concur, provide that service.

Bloggers who regularly are writing copy for their websites and want a second pair of eyes reviewing their copy before release would benefit from this service.

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Indexing

A professional index ensures your manuscript becomes a book whose valuable information is readily accessible to your readers. But it is not simply an alphabetical collection of terms and names.

A quality index is a structure providing key access points to the text for your reader. An understanding of the overall topic(s) of your material and message at any given point in your text is my focus in creating an effective index.

Using professional indexing software, I create an index that effectively organizes information and concepts from your text in a thematic structure that makes it easy for your readers to use.

While there are guidelines indexers use in determining which topics belong in an index, choice of terms is somewhat of an art. No two indexers would produce the same index. I would be happy to show you a sample of my work.

Details Matter

Express your ideas with clear, coherent, and concise writing

Your ideas Your research Your hard work

It’s easy to miss the details—errors of grammar, spelling, and punctuation that can take the shine off your writing. I will make sure your writing is error-free, polished, and professional.

Copyediting

Copyediting ensures clear, concise, accurate text reaches your reader so your writing comes through at its best. That is my focus: to review your text with your reader in mind.

Light copyediting: I provide a foundational review to ensure your manuscript is rendered error-free. The following elements are reviewed:

appropriate spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation, capitalization, hyphenation

appropriate and consistent language usage

adherence to the applicable style manual, typically Chicago Manual of Style

your intended meaning is clear as written

clear and consistent use of abbreviations and acronyms

potentially inconsistent or inaccurate facts are pointed out

pages with material that may require permission to reprint are pointed out

accurate numbering of footnotes, tables, and figures

Medium copyediting: I provide a complete light copyediting review, as well as identify and make suggestions for adjustments to any unclear, wordy, or imprecise sentences.

I prepare a style sheet, which will document copyediting decisions for your future use to ensure consistency.

♦ ♦ ♦

Proofreading

It’s all about credibility. Overlooked errors in published material, whether in print or on the web, weaken the credibility of the content in your reader's eyes. Proofreading is essential prior to publication to ensure that errors, which could prove embarrassing, do not make it into print.

I recommend that your writing undergo copyediting prior to proceeding with final proofreading. However, if you are confident your copy is ready for final proofreading, even without having been professionally copyedited, I would review a sample and, if I concur, provide that service.

Bloggers who regularly are writing copy for their websites and want a second pair of eyes reviewing their copy before release would benefit from this service.

♦ ♦ ♦

Indexing

A professional index ensures your manuscript becomes a book whose valuable information is readily accessible to your readers. But it is not simply an alphabetical collection of terms and names.

A quality index is a structure providing key access points to the text for your reader. An understanding of the overall topic(s) of your material and message at any given point in your text is my focus in creating an effective index.

Using professional indexing software, I create an index that effectively organizes information and concepts from your text in a thematic structure that makes it easy for your readers to use.

While there are guidelines indexers use in determining which topics belong in an index, choice of terms is somewhat of an art. No two indexers would produce the same index. I would be happy to show you a sample of my work.