Editing

”What

“If you still persist in writing, “Good food at it’s best”, you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave.”― Lynne Truss

The Institute of Professional Editors groups the work of editors into three broad levels:

Structural or content editing: making sure the document’s structure, flow, content, language, style and presentation suits its intended purpose and audience. It might mean rewriting to unify the voice or tailoring text to a specific audience.
Copyediting: for text accuracy, clarity and consistency. Not significant rewriting but fixing errors, correcting grammar, and making sure meanings are very clear.
Proofreading (see below): the final check before publication. Making sure everything is there in the right order, the preferred style has been applied, and all typos, spelling or punctuation errors are fixed.

A comprehensive edit involves all three levels which can often overlap.

Whether for print or online, all three edit levels are essential. They happen at different times in the publication process and often more than once.

Brontë Seidel, Principal of Worded Up, is a full member of Editors Victoria.

Your editing needs

A trained editor can be a godsend, a pair of objective eyes. We will scan your document, offer insights and suggestions, discuss the work you want done and estimate how long it will take.

If it’s a large corporate document compiled by multiple contributors, we might need to unify tone and style and improve readability. We have extensive experience editing stakeholder publications and newsletters, articles, annual reports, proposals, applications, corporate website copy, strategic documents and research reports.

“Was that semi-colon some kind of flirty wink or just bad punctuation?” ― Azadeh Aalai

Worded Up will bring your documents to life.

Proofreading – the final quality check

Proofreading is done after design but before print or publication.

Amendments at this stage should be minor and not affect meaning. Ideally, they will only address changes needed for accuracy and clarity.

Final corrections might include:

♦   errors in punctuation, grammar and capitalisation
♦   wording that can be misunderstood
♦   incorrect spelling
♦   typos
♦   errors in spacing or formatting, and
♦   design irregularities.

Remember – it will be your decision which of our recommended changes you accept or reject.

If you bring that sentence in for
a fitting, I can have it shortened by Wednesday.

~M*A*S*H, Hawkeye