Everyone needs to have his work edited even once in his life. An editing company can polish the work of a beginner, improve the writing of a mediocre or average writer and proofread the work of an expert with an unbiased eye.
There’s nothing reprehensible
about having an editing company look over your college entrance essay or
manuscript since it’s almost impossible to be completely objective when
revising one’s work; what is reprehensible is when you’ve gone all the trouble
to hire one but still ending up with an unprofessional paper.
If you’ve decided
to hire editing services for your work, use our checklist below to do it right
the first time around:
Amount of Writing Experience
All professional
editors were writers once. You need to know the writing background of the
editor to determine his capabilities in performing the task. To write a
business proposal, he must have adequate experience in business writing.
Anything less than three years is not just good enough. Lastly, ask if he can
furnish references.
Amount of Editing Experience
Besides writing,
the editor must also have sufficient experience working as a professional
editor. Ask samples of his work its better if he can supply you with a
before-and-after example to gauge his editing abilities. Again, ask if he can
provide you with references.
Involvement in an Industry
An editor will be
able to write and edit better if he was also a businessman once. Having been
involved in the industry in a professional basis will provide him with certain
information that a mere observer may not be privy with. Having more knowledge
on the business will enable the editor to understand the works he’s revising
more clearly, and consequently be able to edit them with a more discerning eye.
Credentials of the Editor
Ask about the editor’s
educational attainment and other credentials that he has. Credentials are
further proof of an editor’s level of experience in his chosen field. Of
course, make sure that you verify whatever credentials he does mention because
he might just be untruthful about everything.
Types of Services Offered
People have various
reasons for needing to hire editing services. Make sure that the editing firm
you choose to transact with is able to provide the services you’re after.
Examples of types of services offered by most editing firms are supplied below:
Ghost-writing If
you have a story to tell or a paper you need to do but you don’t have the right
words at your disposal, you can hire a ghost-writer from an editing firm to
write everything down for you. With a ghost-writer to help you out, your work
will still be solely to your credit. Ghost-writers aren’t credited with by-lines
because they are only there to help you pick out the best words for your
writing.
Proofreading Maybe
all you need is someone to check your work for any typographical or grammatical
errors. If so, a proof-reader is the best person to help you out. Clients have
various needs when it comes to proofreading; some want all errors to be
automatically corrected and substituted while others prefer their mistakes to
be simply highlighted but leave all the revising to them. If you have specific
preferences in this matter, make sure your editing firm knows about it
beforehand.
If your work lacks
substance or hasn’t enough facts to support its claim, an editing firm can help
you out by researching extensively about the subject of your paper.
Publishing Guidance
Maybe, you don’t need any help when it comes to writing. Maybe, all you need is
a nudge to the right direction and have your book published. If so, an editing
firm is still capable of helping you in this situation. They can help you
create an outline and proposal for your book, find a literary agent to
represent your work or give you suggestions about that publishing firms to
choose.
How Long and How Much
Alas, we come to
the two most important bases of our decision: how long will revisions take and
how much in total will it cost? It’s okay to go a bit over the budget if your
reasons are valid but just make sure that they are, indeed, valid. Expect to
pay extra if you have a rush deadline to meet.
Lastly, if you
expect to have various needs for editing services, it’s better to choose one that’s
able to provide for all of the services you’re after. Hiring a different
company for each editing service you need is not only tiring but more costly as
well in the long run.
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