Editing

Editing is a wide-ranging and much misunderstood skill. Put simply, it takes existing written material and improves it or recrafts it for a different purpose or readership.

It can involve:

• Review-and-critique: giving clear pointers on how to improve the structure and readability of material. This is especially useful for report-writing or academic dissertations
• Abstracting: taking large amounts of information and condensing it (sometimes to less than 0.1% of the original). Typically used for conferences where speakers must present an abstract of their speech for publication in the event’s marketing materials
• Paraphrasing: rewriting small passages or large tracts of text for greater readability, sharpening consistency of tone, style or message. This often includes elements of fact-checking
• Wordcount reduction: a good editor can shrink wordcounts by c20% without loss of message. This is especially relevant for business applications where succinctness is critical e.g. bids and tenders, or web pages where scrolling should be avoided
• Proofreading: the final ‘spit-and-polish’ before publishing, proofreading eliminates all grammatical blemishes and other inconsistencies

Contact me to discuss your needs, and I will help to define an appropriate editorial brief.