Editing and Proofreading

I offer editing and proofreading services for English texts and very often work with documents written by non-native speakers. I am very detail-oriented and take pride in offering top-notch work.

What These Services Entail

Talking about editing and proofreading can often lead to some confusion as people occasionally define these services differently. Below you will find a complete description of what services you will receive if you request editing and proofreading through my business.

Proofreading

This task, as I refer to it, is monolingual and so is not related to translation. If you request that a document be proofread, it will be checked through for spelling and grammar mistakes and for “readability” – that is, I will ensure that sentences make sense.

This service can be excellent for non-native English speakers who have written a document in English and are not certain whether they have produced an error-free text. This is something that can be quite difficult if you are not writing in your first language – Did you use hyphens correctly? Which preposition normally follows that word? Are you maybe mixing American and British spelling or vocabulary without noticing? It can also be quite difficult if you are writing in your first language and the text is very important or you are in a rush. Proofreading will leave what you have written in your own words and with your own writing style, but will tidy up any mistakes or nonsensical phrasings that may be lurking in the text.

Editing

This task is also monolingual and unrelated to translation, and it also involves checking the text through for spelling or grammar mistakes. However, editing is more in-depth than proofreading and also takes writing style into consideration: clunky sentences that make grammatical sense but sound “off” can be tidied up and made to sound smoother, while formatting that doesn’t work very well for the text (e.g. a paragraph as long as a page) can be fixed.

Editing can also involve following a certain brief – you may have a text that you have written for an expert audience that you would now like to have made suitable for a more generic audience, or you may think your writing is too long-winded and would like to have it trimmed down. You may also have written a text in one variety of English (e.g. American) and want to change it to another (e.g. Canadian) for a different audience (this particular service is described more fully on the page English and its Varieties under the heading “English to English ‘Translation'”).

This service is more useful for stronger writers who have a good grasp of English grammar and spelling in general, but who want to tweak their texts in other ways.

Englishes Available

I am a Canadian English native speaker, but thanks to my lifelong exposure to American and British texts, together with my experience of living in the UK for over two years, I have a good understanding of the differences between these varieties of English. This understanding is deepened even further thanks to the fact that the differences between American, British, and Canadian English featured prominently in my master’s thesis, Translating into Canadian English, and I have done a lot of research into the area. Thus, I provide editing and proofreading services in all three of these varieties.

Thanks to my recent move to New Zealand, I am also adding New Zealand and Australian English to my list.

More information about my experience with English and with different English varieties can be found on the page English and its Varieties. What is meant by “English varieties” is also covered on this page, and further explanation and examples can be found on the FAQ page under “What do you mean when you talk about different varieties of English?”

Pricing

For information regarding my rates, please see the Rates tab.