Our editing expertise comes from years of practical experience. For more than two decades we have written and edited books and other seminal publications, journal articles, reports, presentations, and other types of text for highly regarded individuals and organizations. Thus, our training comes from real-world experience with high stakes and exacting audiences, including university presidents and other tenured professors, corporate executives, high-level government officials, and multilateral international organizations.

In short, we understand the power of the written word and love choosing words with care.

Approach

We make every editing choice with your objectives in mind: who will be reading your text, what purpose should it serve, how should it influence readers?

Developmental editing can help get your work moving when you are, for example, restructuring for a new audience, cutting 60,000 words from your manuscript, writing topic sentences, or deciding when your manuscript is actually ready to submit. We typically develop text by first assessing a draft or proposal. We work with you to identify and frame the central and supporting arguments, determine section headers or chapter titles, and align scope and tone to arrive at a coherent work that fits the intended audience and specific publishing requirements.

When we copy edit text, we focus mainly on your text’s purpose, clarity, logical sequence of information, grammar, length, language, voice, and flow. We revise segments of your text or give specific suggestions for you to determine how to best finalize the project. In some cases, we will focus on the larger picture to help identify and clearly articulate main points. In other instances, we will get specific about keywords, untangle awkward phrasing, and adjust for passive or active voice. Typically, we consider the placement and order of information or arguments, check on the transition from one section or paragraph to the next, and assess the strength and placement of key sentences.

When we review pre-final and final drafts, we proofread with regard to clarity and grammar, for which we may correct punctuation, vocabulary, sentence structure, verb tense, and subject/object agreement.

We do not offer ghostwriting services.

Process

We edit in “track changes” or “suggestion” mode and use margin comments so the author can see exactly what we have done and address any specific issues we identified. For each project, we provide written feedback in the form of a short editorial letter with commentary on our overall impression of the text, an assessment of the text’s strengths and weaknesses, and suggestions for addressing such issues. We also provide a complete file of any text snippets we recommend removing.

After we return a text, we are freely available to provide clarification or answer questions about our revisions and edits.

The author, of course, always has final say about any and all suggested changes or revisions.

Types of Text

No project is too big—or too small! We work on all sorts of texts, but most fall into one of these categories:

Professional Material

Is your annual report overly verbose? Did you commission a white paper that came back stilted, dull, and much too long? Are you creating new content for your website? When your writing represents your professional prowess, we make sure it’s flawless.

Academic Writing Coach

A PhD project is enormous – almost too big. Everyone who writes a PhD can use support, methodological tips, or an accountability coach. PhD candidates at universities outside the US may particularly miss the institutional support American universities provide. An academic writing coach fills those gaps.

Rates

Different services require different kinds of attention and varying amounts of time. We work with each client to arrive at a mutually agreeable arrangement for each project.

Our fees for editing services are generally based on hourly rates by service type (see Scholarly Works and Professional Material).

For novels and other works of fiction, our fees are set to match the project and budget.

For PhD candidates, we have a set hourly rate for coaching; this can be adjusted depending on circumstances (see Academic Writing Coaching).

When you’re ready for editing or want a coaching consultation, contact us and we’ll tailor a quote just for you.