Copyediting Services

I use a wide variety of resources and my more than 25 years of experience to:

Locate punctuation, grammar and spelling errors
Suggest better sentence structure
Verify facts and accuracy
Point out where your reader may not understand
Keep your copy consistent – both in what it says and how it looks
Suggest typography enhancements

My job is to make suggestions, not to rewrite your copy or to tell you what to do. The final decision is yours; if you choose not to accept my suggestions, that’s fine. After all, it’s your newsletter, brochure, etc., and you must be happy with the final product. (Just remember to keep your reader in mind when making your decisions.)

Resources

When I edit copy, I reference the following resources in this order:

Your personal preferences, such as using an em dash instead of an en dash
Your stylebook (if you have one and get a copy to me)
Your company intranet (if you give me access)
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
The Associated Press Stylebook
The Gregg Reference Manual
The library, encyclopedias, atlases and other official authorities
The Internet

I also maintain a preference list (item 1 above) for each client, so, from project to project, I can keep terms and preferences consistent.

Typography

I was a typesetter back when formatting was done on proprietary systems, like Compugraphic, rather than on the personal computers of today, and typesetters, or formatters, were schooled in the design, style, arrangement and appearance of typeset matter. So, to say I “edit for typography” means I look for things like:

Dashes ( – or — ) vs. hyphens ( - )
Fraction style consistency (full-size vs. ^superscript/_subscript characters)
Quotation marks (also known as “smart quotes”) vs. inch marks (or "dumb quotes")
Apostrophes ( ’ ) vs. foot marks ( ' )
Heading consistency – styles, fonts, sizes and correctness of use; spacing above and below; and column head alignment on baseline
Leading consistency – the amount of space between lines of text and paragraphs
Kerning – closing gaps between certain letter combinations, such as the capital “A” and capital “W”
Indentation and alignment of paragraphs, bullets, tables and graphics
Inappropriate double spaces
Line endings – widows, orphans and rivers; deep ditches in the right margin; end-of-line hyphenation; and inappropriate word/date splits

For more detailed explanations and additional examples, see Tips and Techniques, Formatting Tips.

Some clients like to send me “raw” (not formatted) copy, because they want their copy as “clean” as possible before it is flowed into layouts. Remember, however, if you send me raw copy, I will be able to check some of the typography items listed above (such as dashes vs. hyphens), but not all (such as kerning and line endings). That’s why some clients prefer to have me edit a job twice – once to clean up the grammar, punctuation, content and consistency, and the second time to verify corrections were made and to clean up typography.

Using my services allows you to concentrate on the big-picture items, while I take care of the details.

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Contact Editing Ink at (314) 894-8308 or editing@editingink.com.

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