Editing bites …

… but it needn’t hurt. When it comes to publishing your writing, your editor can be your best friend.

What an editor shouldn’t change

• What you are trying to say.
• Your voice.
• Your style.

Because you are the writer and it’s your work.

What an editor should change

• What is necessary to ensure you communicate what you are trying to say communicated clearly and effectively.
• What is necessary to ensure the target reader will understand your words easily, without loss of meaning and without having to go back through the text to try to work out what you are saying. Because they may not bother.
• What is necessary to convey your intended meaning without distraction.

Most of all, you will want your writing to make sense.

Here are some of the things that will distract your reader and detract from your writing:

• inconsistencies (eg in formatting, spelling, terminology, capitalisation, tenses, table and figure numbering and cross-referencing in the text))
• overly complicated/obtuse words and expressions and too many words when only a few are needed
• missing opening/closing quotation marks and citations
• overemphasis
• typos.

Scary?

I can help you with all this and more. I come to your work with fresh eyes, extensive editing experience, and an enthusiasm for the process and for helping writers to succeed.

Try me.