Services

White Level Styling

Proofreading

Proofreading is often misconstrued as copyediting. Proofreading happens after a copyedit in the last stages before a document is published. The Snooks & Co. Style Manual For Authors, Editors and Printers states that proofreading is ‘a quality control process rather than an editing process’.

If you request proofreading, Word Stylist will ask you to provide a style sheet to check your document for consistency. The style sheet is usually set out by your copyeditor or publisher. In your clean copy you can expect to see corrections to alignment, spacing, fonts, heading hierarchies, headers and footers, and obvious spelling and syntactical errors. Proofreading also checks the numbering and placement of figures, tables and illustrations, and the functionality of hyperlinks.

Gold Level Styling

Copyediting

Copyediting perfects the language, style and layout of your document to achieve syntactical consistency, accuracy and completeness. It focuses on grammar, spelling, punctuation and sentence structure. Copyediting also looks for plagiarism, obscenity and any obvious breach of copyright.

If you request copyediting, Word Stylist will improve errors in language. We will ensure consistent and accurate use of terms; capitalisation; punctuation; numbers; shortened forms, including abbreviations, initialisms, acronyms and contractions; spelling; date formats; symbols; equations and hyphenation. Copyediting also includes cross-checking references, figures and illustrations against the text. Your clean copy will adhere to your specified style. It will contain consistent and properly integrated heading hierarchies, page layouts, spacing, alignment, tables, figures, illustrations, captions and reference lists. As part of a copyedit, you may also request the creation of tables of contents and other lists.

Black Level Styling

Substantive Editing

This level of editing is like a deep clean. Following a substantive edit, the original document and the clean copy bear little resemblance. Substantive editing is not appropriate—evidently—for research theses or student assignments. It is reserved for writing that is not part of an assessment in any degree or course. Writers who can request a substantive edit, include academics, book authors, bloggers and businesses.

If you request substantive editing, Word Stylist will improve the content, focus, structure, format, language, style and presentation of your document. Your clean copy will be clear, concise, cohesive, consistent and aligned with your intended purpose and readership. After a substantive edit you can expect to see rewriting, reorganisation of paragraphs, new headings or dot point lists, new content and detailed suggestions.

For more information on professional editing practice, please refer to the Institute for Professional Editors’ (IPEd) Australian standards for editing practice and Guidelines for editing research theses. Word Stylist adheres strictly to the rules outlined in these two documents.

Writing Services

Word Stylist also offers a professional writing service for businesses and academics. I have experience writing web content, research articles and scientific explainer articles for the layperson. So, if you need to outsource your writing, send me your ideas and relevant information, and I will go forth and write for you.

Pricing

Every job is unique. For more information, please visit our pricing page.