Editing

We provide several kinds of editing services.

Translation Editing and Proofreading

Both services apply to previously translated materials and it is important to specify which kind you are interested in.

As part of the editing process, we will review the translated document thoroughly, comparing it to its original counterpart and amend it, in order to improve style, syntax, and terminology choices. The translation will be checked for translation accuracy as well as for grammatically and idiomatically correct language. The translation will also be checked for completeness and accuracy of transcription, where applicable.

The proofreading process involves checking mainly for grammatically and idiomatically correct language in a translated text, but does not involve checking for translation accuracy or completeness, as it does not involve the comparison of the translated text to its original counterpart. Unless otherwise requested, both services focus on the content of the material and not on the formatting or layout.

Copyediting and Substantive Editing

Copyediting

There’s more involved than running a spell check. We make sure grammar, syntax, punctuation, word choice, and spelling are perfect. We are the defenders of proper grammar, usage, spelling and what publications call style: when to capitalize, when to use numerals or spell out the numbers, etc.

We eliminate style inconsistencies, following your own guide or any other. We query the illogical, incorrect, inconsistent, misplaced, missing, or unclear. We check tables and figures and cross-check with text references.

Some mistakes jump out: the comically wrong homonyms, the core for corps, the pour for pore, the ordinance for ordnance. Some are more subtle: It’s easy to miss errors in quotations because our training tells us to leave quotations alone, but if the author has left out or misinterpreted a word or two, it’s the copy editor’s job to notice and ask.

Substantive Editing…includes all the above and more.

The copy editor needs to be a critical reader: Is the text missing necessary background or other information? Is it unfair? Is it libelous? Have crucial questions gone unasked? When the answer is yes, the copy editor is on the phone with the author or researching on the Internet to make things right, and to do it on deadline. We have to be alert to ambiguities in the writing; if readers are misled or puzzled by the phrasing of a sentence, we have failed.

We have to be the reader’s advocates, straightening out twisted syntax (no matter that it’s correct) when it does not serve the reader. We guard against clichés and jargon. We check the facts, to the extent we can.

We rewrite text, reorganize abstracts, transitions, and conclusions as needed; we eliminate redundancies and fix non-standard English. We organize multi-author documents for cohesive projects; we check graphics against text. We query anything problematic, and ensure that the text represents the author’s thought.