Editing

From the big picture to the tiny details, I can edit your documents, academic papers, and other content into a polished finished product. I edit for NGOs, businesses, academic writers (particularly in the social, environmental, and applied sciences, the humanities, and business management), and any organization that needs to make sure its English content is clear and targeted.

We start with a conversation to help me understand your goals and your audience. I’ll also want to see a sample of the content to know what I’ll be working with and to give you a fair estimate.

I then get to work crafting and polishing the text. This may include:

• basic proofreading — perfecting spelling and grammar.
• compiling information from diverse sources into a single cohesive document.
• reorganizing your existing information so it flows in a clear and logical way.
• determining the most intuitive and practical structure for your content.
• shortening parts to make them more clear.
• correcting awkward sentences.
• adding, deleting, replacing, or modifying words.
• changing from British to American English or vice versa.
• getting rid of all weird phrasings, odd expressions, jumbled word orders, misspellings, awkward statements, and things you might say in your language that a native English speaker wouldn’t say.

I closely follow style guidelines to adhere to publication requirements.

And what about those Google translations? They may or may not get the point across, but they almost always have some seriously awkward language. That’s embarrassing, isn’t it?

You might not need to hire a professional translator who knows your language. In many cases*, I can edit the translation to remove the ridiculous parts and make it sound like a native speaker wrote it.

*Exceptions include fiction, scientific and highly technical documents, legal documents, and content that’s full of slang or metaphor.