Copyediting

A copyedit gets your book, article, or dissertation closer to the publication and submission stage. It involves sentence-by-sentence read throughs looking in detail at the structure and consistency of the text, flow and readability, as well as picking up on typos and grammar issues. If you have a style guide, I will follow that for spellings, format and referencing, if not, I build a bespoke one for your manuscript or paper. 

 

I generally prefer to work in Word with tracking on so you can easily see all the amendments made and have control over what ultimately gets changed. I will style all headings and sub-headings ready for typesetting and raise queries in the comment boxes, flagging anything I think needs further consideration (such as language use regarding sensitivity and inclusivity). My goal is to ensure clarity, consistency, correctness and credibility – the 4 ‘Cs’ of good writing. (does this quote mark look the right way round on the website or is it one of those design things!)

 

I am passionate about retaining your voice, so even when I suggest and rephrase, I will try not to lose your tone and style. 

 

Below is a checklist of some of the aspects I will look at depending on the type of document you have.

 

• misspellings, typos, grammar and punctuation 

• heading levels, formatting, spacing, and font changes

• visual content (e.g. images, graphs, tables, charts)

• consistency of style (e.g. spelling, capitalization)

• adherence to your preferred style guide

• flag sentences that might benefit from rephrasing for clarity, flow and readability

• contradictions in terms of content and assertions being made

• repetition of words and phrases (I will suggest alternatives)

• fact checks of specific content such as dates and names

• in-text citations to reference list cross-check

• format of footnote numbers and footnotes

• reference list check for order, format and URL links

• potential copyright issues

• flag language that might be problematic and for inclusivity