About

My work is best summarised by “The Five Cees” – making your text Clear, Correct, Concise, Comprehensible and Consistent. I review grammar, spelling, layout and punctuation as well as ensuring consistency of style, language and design.

The level of service can be tailored to suit your needs:

• At the most basic level is simple proofreading: ensuring correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. Your computer’s spellcheck facility will not pick up all errors – nothing can beat a fresh pair of eyes, trained in the art of proofreading.
• More advanced proofreading involves, for example, checking the accuracy of cross-references, page numbers, indexing and hyperlinks. Are tables and graphs correctly labelled and do they accurately represent the data? Does your reference list match up with in-text citations?
• There is often more than one correct way to write something and the next level of editing aims to achieve consistency of style and formatting. For example, should that person’s name be spelled Steven or Stephen? Have you used ‘ize’ or ‘ise’ spelling throughout (e.g. organize/organise)? Do all your headings/subheadings look the same (e.g. size/bold/ underlined/capitals)?
• It’s easy to become so involved with a document that what makes perfect sense to you might still be hard to follow for an outsider. Long sentences, too much jargon, using three words where one will do – all these can make life difficult for your reader. Writing Matters can help to improve the general flow and “readability” of your message, by clarifying and simplifying without losing the essence of what you want to say.

Depending on where you are based and the level of contact required, the work can be done entirely by email and phone or with face-to-face meetings and hard-copy marking as requested.