We also offer editing as a standalone service. We accept texts that you have drafted yourself and want to see perfected.
Poorly written or clumsily drafted texts confuse and anger the intelligent reader. It is particularly unfortunate when such texts are beautifully typeset and printed on glossy paper, pop up on the TV screen, or tower over the city as giant advertisements.
Our language editors will correct grammatical and syntax errors in your material, check for correct and consistent language use, and ensure the integrity and stylistic purity of your texts. Your texts are always edited by a native speaker of the relevant language!
Proofreading vs editing: What's the difference?
A proofreader looks at spelling,
grammar, punctuation, etc. Editors also carry out substantive checks
(fact-checking, finding solutions, improving style and sentence structure,
etc.).
We will help you streamline the terminology used in your field. If you so wish, we will work with you to put together a glossary of terms that you can use in your institution.
Proofreading
Anyone who has been involved in the production of marketing texts knows: after a text is handed over to the layout designer, mistakes can easily slip in. A layout designer is usually not a linguist, just as a linguist is not a designer.
Each language has its own rules. In English, words are split differently from in Estonian. In Latvian and Lithuanian, again, there are the quirky diacritics (dots, squiggles, straight or curvy lines above, below, beside or inside a letter), which the layout designer may not find among their typefaces, and which they may just substitute with the 'normal' letters. In French, there is a space before the colon. In which languages is the percentage sign written next to a number and in which languages should there be a space between the number and the percentage sign? What is the correct way of splitting the Estonian word 'kuusetukad’ (‘stands of fir trees’)? Is it ‘kuu-setukad’ (which means ‘moon dobbins’ in Estonian) or ‘kuuse-tukad’ (‘stands of fir trees’)? There are a number of things that a proofreader checks when proofreading before the final text is printed, ensuring that your text doesn't look sloppy in print or on screen (where it will seen by thousands of readers), but instead is impeccably phrased and error-free.
So, please put aside some time and resources for pre-print proofreading!