This post is definitely not giving away editorial trade secrets and doesn’t mean that my colleagues need to release the hounds to shut me up before I can do any more harm. However, some clients probably could do some basic proofreading tasks for themselves… Introduction The aim of this post is to help students (and others) to help themselves when writing a document, such as a thesis, dissertation or essay. It will highlight some of Read more
It’s simple, isn’t it? A client wants their written text to be edited and a proofreader wants to help with this. But how do they go about things to make sure they’re both happy at the end of it? All too often I see a vague description of work by a potential client, which doesn’t help anyone. For example, it isn’t uncommon to see a request along the lines of: “I need someone to check Read more
(Warning: this blog has very little to do with editing and proofreading and therefore some of you may prefer to skip it and carry on reading the Chicago Manual of Style or whatever) First things first: this is most definitely not an exposé of the inner workings at the Environment Agency (EA) or a guide on how to trick your way past your friendly EA inspector. It is simply some basic guidance on how Read more
We’ve all had them. In fact, every profession on the planet probably has them. Yes, it’s the dreaded recurring questions. While I was working as a mainframe software developer in the IT industry many years ago, friends and acquaintances would inevitably ask me: “Can you help to fix my computer?” Similarly, while I was in the environmental business, people would ask me: “Do you plant trees and hug bunnies or something?” Sadly, this was never Read more