Details of my services can be found on my Services Page. If you’ve read that page and you are still not sure which service you need, please email me and I’ll be happy to arrange a phone chat about your project. 

Pricing

No two projects are the same and that’s why pricing will vary according to the type and amount of text and the kind of work you would like doing. For example, text that is ready for a final proofread will require less work than text that is complex or needs editing for clarity or readability.

Quoting Process

To provide a free no-obligation quote for your project I’ll need to know the following:

o  What you would like me to do and what you would like to achieve
o  Length – wordcount/ number of documents 
o  Format you would like me to work in eg Word, PDF
o  If the text contains illustrations/ tables or other non-text content
o  Audience and how they will they access it (eg it will sit in an online learning portal)
o  Whether it has been edited already  
o  If you have a house style to work to
o  Timescales

To give you an accurate quote, I’ll usually ask to see a 1,000 word sample of your text from the middle of the document (or sometimes sight of the whole project if it’s a type of document I haven’t worked on before).

I’ll carry out a free sample edit (again, no obligation) and I’ll then return the sample, provide you with a quote (usually per 1,000 words, or per hour) and send you a ‘scope of work’ for the project and my terms & conditions.

(Note: if the text is confidential and you can’t send a sample, we can do a test edit on a first document after a confidentiality agreement is signed.)

You can then decide if you’d like to accept my quote and we can agree start and finish dates.

Spellcheckers are useful, but there are lots of things that a proofreader will spot that a spellchecker won’t. They also can’t make judgements based on the context, style, purpose or the audience for your text.

Here are some of the things that spellcheckers tend not to find but proofreaders do:

• Words that are correctly spelled but used in the wrong place eg practise/practice, illicit/elicit, affect/effect
• Using different forms for the same word (hyphen, one word, two words)
• Inconsistent spelling eg names, departments
• Repetition
• Missing words or missing chunks of text
• Errors in headings or page numbers
• Wrongly numbered points or incorrect captions
• Obviously incorrect facts

If you are using a proofreader for the first time, you might feel nervous about handing over your text.

It’s OK, please don’t be nervous! I will always treat your text with respect and support you to produce the best quality content possible. Preserving the ‘author’s voice’ is a big part of proofreading and editing.

I’ll build a relationship with you by being up-front about what I can do and when, keeping you informed as the work progresses and providing you with clear documents in your choice of format (Word or PDF).

I’ll use my knowledge to help bring consistency and clarity to the text including working to your own house style or, if you don’t have one, producing a style sheet which you can also use to bring consistency to future documents/webpages/projects.

If there is something I spot that doesn’t fall into the scope of my service, but I feel it needs attention, I’ll flag it up for you to address.

• Word documents – probably the most convenient format to use. I can edit using Track Changes and also provide you with a second ‘clean’ copy that you can paste into your document straight away.
  
  
• PDF documents – if you don’t have the text in Word format, I can use Adobe Reader comment tools to mark up a PDF with changes (the changes will just be flagged up, rather than actually editing the words in the PDF).
  
  
• BSI symbols – if you prefer me to use BSI proofreading symbols for marking up the text, I can do that in a PDF document.