In this post, we’ll look at de-cluttering your business writing by following these editing tips.

1.    Remove clichés and overused terms when editing your business writing.

Examples include:
·    At the end of the day
·    Back to the drawing board
·    Core values
·    The fact of the matter is
·    For all intents and purposes
·    On the back burner
·    Seriously consider
·    Up in the air
·    World’s best practice

2.    Replace complicated words with simple ones when possible.

3.    Remove unnecessary words when editing your business writing.

4.    Replace phrases with single words when editing.

5.    Turn nouns into verbs when editing your business writing.

The requirement of the department is that employees work seven and a half hours a day.

can be reduced to:

The department requires employees to work seven and a half hours a day.
(From 16 words to 13 words.)
––––––
You will work on the establishment of goals for the hiring, training and promotion of designated group employees.
can be reduced to:

You will establish goals for hiring, training and promoting employees from designated group employees.

(From 18 words to 14 words.)

This also applies to what are called nominalised phrases.

For more information on nominalisation go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominalization

6.    Replace passive sentences with active ones when editing your business writing.

Computer hardware is manufactured and distributed by us. (Passive voice)

We manufacture and distribute computer hardware. (Active voice)
________________

The proposal was completed and submitted by the project manager. (Passive voice)

The project manager completed and submitted the proposal.  (Active voice)

Applying these editing tips to remove a few words here and there might not seem like much. But if you consistently do this when editing your business documents, you can de-clutter your business writing, make it easier to read and increase its effectiveness.

Let’s look at the pros and cons of outsourcing editing overseas to countries such as India and the Philippines.

Pros of outsourcing editing to an offshore editor

You can probably save money by getting your editing done overseas. Editors in countries such as India and the Philippines will charge substantially less. So even if you go through an outsourcing broker based in Australia the cost will be lower.

Cons of outsourcing editing to an offshore editor

An editor in India or the Philippines might have good command of English spelling, grammar and punctuation. The problem is how much English can vary from country to country. The only way to know these subtleties is to live in the country where the book or document will be published. It’s not as simple as setting your language preferences in Word to Australian English. It really takes an Australian-based editor (or one who has lived here for a number of years) to know how English is spoken and written in Australia.

An editor based in India or the Philippines, who has never lived in Australia, won’t know these subtleties and it will show in their editing. The same will be true of a US editor who tries to edit text for Australian readers or Australian editor who tries to edit text for British readers. Besides the obvious spelling differences, the editors won’t know the nuances of English outside their own countries. This is why Australian publishers hire Australian editors to localise books that were written in the US or UK. They realise that a local editor is needed to revise the publication for the Australian market.  

In addition to spelling and grammar, each English-speaking country has its own style conventions. To edit Australian publications, you need to know these in depth.

For example, the commonly accepted styles for punctuating and capitalising points in bulleted lists differ between countries (see how it should be done in Australia). If an overseas editor doesn’t know these styles, the work won’t be satisfactory. Another example of one of these idiosyncrasies is how time is expressed. In Australia, the accepted style to use a full stop (a period for American readers) between the hour and minute (for example, 5.30). In the United States, the accepted style is to use a colon between the hour and minute (5:30).

There are hundreds of these minor stylistic points that you need to know to correctly edit publications for the Australian market.

Communication barriers are another drawback to outsourcing editing to an overseas editor. In many cases, editing is a collaborative effort between the writer and editor. Trying to communicate with someone overseas about a project can be challenging.

A low hourly rate for editing overseas won’t necessarily translate into a low project price. In the 4-Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferris describes how he had some bad experiences outsourcing to overseas providers. He noted that although the hourly rate was low, it sometimes took substantially more time to get the work done. Whether the hours it took were overstated or it did take longer than expected to complete the work, this is a risk you take when outsourcing to an overseas editor.

Weighing the pros and cons of outsourcing to overseas editors

Before you make a decision, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of outsourcing editing overseas. If price is your only consideration, then it might be the right decision.

If you’re looking for high quality and someone who understands local usage and style conventions, then outsourcing to an overseas editor is not the way to go.

In previous posts we looked at the importance of keeping your business writing as simple as possible.  An easy way to improve your writing is to remove unnecessary words when editing. Tautologies are one form of redundancy in writing and speaking that you can easily spot and remove once you are aware of them.

The Macquarie Dictionary defines a tautology as a “needless repetition of an idea, especially in other words in the immediate context, without imparting additional force or clearness”.

Examples of tautologies include:

• free gift
• necessary requirement
• adequate enough
• new innovation
• forward planning
• pair of twins (unless you mean two sets of twins)
• short summary
• ATM machine
• unexpected surprise
• past history
• poisonous venom
• 5.00 am in the morning
• reiterate again
• joint cooperation
• safe haven
• added bonus
• $500 dollars
• PIN number.

Removing tautologies in your business writing is one way to make it more clear and prevent it from being redundant and superfluous.

In this editing blog post we’ll give a definition of copy editing (also spelled copy-editing and copyediting) and use examples to show what a copy editor does to improve consistency throughout a document and prepare it for publication.

Definition of copy editing

As we wrote in a previous editing blog post, the Australian Style manual for authors editors and printers defines copy editing as follows:

The purpose of copy editing is to remove the mistakes, inconsistencies or other infelicities of expression that could irritate of confuse readers—or embarrass the author. At the copy editing stage, the editor therefore concentrates on the details of language, spelling and punctuation; on achieving consistency of style and layout; and on checking references, illustrations tables, headings, sequences, links, and preliminary matter and end matter.

Scope of copy editing

The Style manual broadly defines copy editing tasks in four areas: language, consistency, references and functionality.

Copy editing language

When copy editing language, the copy editor will find and correct errors of grammar, spelling and punctuation. In addition, the copy editor will look for clarity of meaning. In some instances, the copy editor might feel that the work needs substantive editing or should be sent back to the author for rewriting.

Copy editing for language consistency

Copy editing for language consistency requires more than knowledge of grammar, spelling and punctuation. The copy editor needs to ensure the publication is consistent throughout. Copy editing for consistency covers aspects such as terminology, spelling, capitalisation, hyphenation, shortened forms and quantitative information.

Let’s look at some of these.

There are quite a few words can be spelt two or more ways correctly. If we were publishing an article about copy editing, for example, we would want to use the same spelling (copy editing) throughout. Depending on the dictionary you use, the term can also be spelt copy-editing and copyediting. Another example is online, which can also be spelt on-line.

One of the tasks of a copy editor is to choose which spelling to use and make it consistent throughout the document. Some organisations will have a style sheet that shows the preferred spelling of common words. Publishing houses and universities usually have a preferred dictionary (such as Macquarie or Oxford in Australia) that should be used when choosing between alternate spellings.

Copy editing for consistency covers the small details (that many writers don’t think about) such as dashes. For example, the Style manual for authors, editors and printers suggest that em dashes (long dashes such as this —) be used as follows to set apart an explanatory phrase in a sentence.

National policies may change the decision-making environment—water licensing reform is an example—or provide guidance on suitable areas for government investment.

These and other types of dashes are often used incorrectly and inconsistently throughout documents. Copy editors find examples such as the following that need to be corrected.

National policies may change the decision-making environment - water licensing reform is an example - or provide guidance on suitable areas for government investment.

National policies may change the decision-making environment – water licensing reform is an example – or provide guidance on suitable areas for government investment.

Abbreviated forms often require correction for consistency during copy editing.

For example, in one section of a document the abbreviation of information technology, I.T., might include full stops (called periods in the USA), while in another IT doesn’t have full stops.

Many consistency issues are the result of collaborative efforts when different people or departments contribute to different parts of a publication. One person prefers to write IT, while another prefers I.T.

One way to prevent this problem—and make copy editing easier and less expensive— is to have a house style guide (also called a style sheet) that lists the preferred ways of spelling and abbreviating. You can also spell out general rules, such as ‘Abbreviations should not include full stops’.

Numbers are another factor that a copy editor needs to look at when copy editing. Do you spell out numbers as words or do you use numerals? The Australian Style Manual recommends using words for the numbers one through one-hundred and writing higher numbers as numerals (when the document is not statistically oriented).

Bulleted lists are one potentially confusing element that an editor will correct to make consistent throughout a publication. Do you capitalise each bulleted point? Do you put a full stop or semi-colon at the end of each one? A copy editor will know the correct styles and apply them throughout the document (for more information on formatting bulleted lists see Editing and Proofreading: Bulleted Lists).

Copy editing for language and consistency is a time-consuming process. Besides checking and correcting spelling, punctuation and grammar, the copy editor needs to look for consistency throughout the document. A few of the elements that are checked for consistency during the copy editing process are spelling, dashes, abbreviations, numbers and bulleted lists.

When calling on the services of a freelance copy editor, it’s important to remember that copy editing requires more than checking for the basic mistakes. The time and cost estimates you receive for copy editing services might seem high, but there is much more to the process than meets the eye. Also, it doesn’t pay to cut corners by sending your work offshore (such as to India or the Philippines) for editing. It’s unlikely that offshore editors will understand the style conventions used in your country, whether you’re in Australia, the UK or the USA.

Here are a few quotations about editors that might answer these questions. You probably will recognise some of the well-known writers who have offered their opinions on editors—some positive, some not.

A good editor understands what you’re talking and writing about and doesn’t meddle too much.

Irwin Shaw

A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. This is too much of a temptation to the editor.

Ring Lardner

A good novel editor is invisible.

Terri Windling

A literary journal is intended to connect writer with reader; the role of the editor is to mediate.

John Barton

A very good editor is almost a collaborator.

Ken Follett

Always point your finger at the chest of the person with whom you are being.  An editor becomes kind of your mother. You expect love and encouragement from an editor.

Jackie Kennedy

An editor is someone who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff.

Adlai E. Stevenson

And that’s another piece of advice I’ll give junior writers; when you get to the point where they take you to lunch, let the editor suggest where to go.

Jerry Pournelle

Anyone nit-picking enough to write a letter of correction to an editor doubtless deserves the error that provoked it.

Alvin Toffler

Book writing is a little different because, in my case, my editor is a year younger than me and basically has the same sensibility as me.

Chuck Klosterman

But for me, being an editor I’ve been an editor of all kinds of books being an editor of poetry has been the way in which I could give a crucial part of my time to what I love most.

Peter Davison

Dealing with poetry is a daunting task, simply because the reason one does it as an editor at all is because one is constantly coming to terms with one’s own understanding of how to understand the world.

Peter Davison

Dullness is the only crime for which an editor ought to be hung.

Josephus Daniels

Editor: a person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.

Elbert Hubbard

I feel sorry for people who have to edit me. Which is why book writing is by far the most enjoyable. Really the only thing it’s based on is whether it’s good or not. No book editor, in my experience, is getting a manuscript and trying to rewrite it.

Chuck Klosterman

I remember when an editor at the National Geographic promised to run about a dozen of my landscape pictures from a story on the John Muir trail as an essay, but when the group of editors got together, someone said that my pictures looked like postcards.

Galen Rowell

I was surprised that my wife thought it was a good idea, then again with my agent, another woman, then my editor, another woman – in spite of the fact that all three of them reacted positively I still have this fear.

Michael Chabon

 I’m a writer first and an editor second… or maybe third or even fourth. Successful editing requires a very specific set of skills, and I don’t claim to have all of them at my command.

Lynn Abbey

If every editor turns you down, maybe you should take a second look at your text, however, just in case.

Piers Anthony

It is also one of the pleasures of oral biography, in that the reader, rather than editor, is jury.

George Plimpton

My only claim to fame, if I have one, is that I’m an editor.

Woody Herman

Not too many people know who the editor is.

Julius Schwartz

Publishing your work is important. Even if you are giving a piece to some smaller publication for free, you will learn something about your writing. The editor will say something, friends will mention it. You will learn.

Tim Cahill

Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

T.S. Eliot quotes (American born English Editor, Playwright, Poet and Critic, 1888-1965)

SYCOPHANT, n. One who approaches Greatness on his belly so that he may not be commanded to turn and be kicked. He is sometimes an editor.

Ambrose Bierce

An editor should tell the author his writing is better than it is. Not a lot better, a little better.

T.S. Eliot (American born English Editor, Playwright, Poet and Critic, 1888-1965)

How often we recall, with regret, that Napoleon once shot at a magazine editor and missed him and killed a publisher. But we remember with charity that his intentions were good.

Mark Twain  (American Humorist, Writer and Lecturer. 1835-1910)

I know many journalists who would like to comment on the deep structure of their profession and its suck-up to advertisers, not to mention the dominant social order. But their editors won’t let them.

Richard Goldstein

Writers take words seriously-perhaps the last professional class that does-and they struggle to steer their own through the crosswinds of meddling editors and careless typesetters and obtuse and malevolent reviewers into the lap of the ideal reader.

John Updike (American writer, b.1932)

Editors are constantly on the watch to discover new talents in old names.

Israel Zangwill (English Writer, 1864-1926)

Editing is an essential step in developing effective business documents. Besides correcting grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors, editing can make your writing easier to understand and more persuasive. Here are a few simple editing tips that can help you make your business writing more clear and effective.

1. Replace complicated and long words and phrases with simple ones. Simple words often convey the same meaning as complicated ones, but require less space and are easier to read. For example, you can change ‘facilitate’ to ‘help’; ‘operate’ to ‘use’; and ‘substantiate’ to ‘prove’. Replacing wordy phrases with single words will make your writing more readable and efficient. For instance, replace ‘on a regular basis’ with ‘regularly’ and ‘at this point in time’ with ‘now’.

 2. Edit your business writing to replace passive voice with active voice. For example, change ‘Innovative products and services are offered by our company’ to ‘Our company offers innovative products and services’. Using active voice requires fewer words and is more direct.

 3. Break up long sentences into shorter ones. Research has shown that comprehension goes down when sentences are too long, so aim for an average sentence length of 20 words or fewer. Sentences over 35 words in length should be broken into two sentences, if possible, when editing.

 4. Create a conversational tone by using the personal pronouns ‘you’ and ‘we’. This is important when you want to connect with your customers and be perceived as approachable. For example, change ‘Advice can be obtained from our customer service department’ to ‘You can get advice from our customer service department’.

 When editing business writing that is meant to persuade your readers, change ‘our clients’ to ‘you’. For example, ‘We offer you a comprehensive range of programs and services’ sounds conversational, while ‘We offer our clients a comprehensive range of programs and services’ does not.

 Another way to make your writing more conversational and friendly is by writing ‘we’ instead of repeating your company name throughout the document.

 5. Remove clichés. These overused phrases have lost their meanings and waste space. Examples of common clichés include phrases such as ‘at the end of the day’, ‘for all intents and purposes’ and ‘as safe as houses’.

 6. Avoid using business and technical jargon. Like clichés, many of these terms are overused and have vague meanings. Corporate jargon includes words such as actionable, best practice, buy-in, drive (as in ‘drive sales’), incentivise, operationalise, repurpose and value proposition. When editing, think about your readers and replace words they won’t understand with common terms.

 7. Read the first draft out loud to judge how it sounds. Is it complicated, wordy or pompous? Rewrite it to make it more human and less robotic.

 Editing is an important step in business writing. By applying the editing tips outlined here, you can improve your business writing and communicate more effectively.

Google the phrases Melbourne editing or editing Melbourne and you’ll get hundreds of search results. If you’re looking for Melbourne editing services, it can be challenging to sift through the websites and find the best editing service provider for your needs.

This blog post examines the market for freelance editing in Melbourne, and offers tips for selecting the right Melbourne editing service for your editing project.

Finding a Melbourne Editing Service

When looking for Melbourne editing services you can use a number of helpful sources. If you check the Yellow Pages, you’ll find nearly 30 companies providing editing services in Melbourne. These Melbourne editing providers are found in the CBD and throughout the suburbs.

Another good way to find Melbourne editing services is through the Society of Editors (Victoria). Each year, the Society of Editors publishes a freelance register that includes hundreds of editors and lists their areas of specialisation. If you’re looking for Melbourne editors who specialise in editing accounting textbooks, for example, you can find them in the Freelance Register. The publication is available in pdf format at www.socedvic.org.

Many freelance editors (including us) work across a wide range of areas. There are times, however, when you’ll want a specialist editor for your needs. If you have a complex medical publication, for example, you’ll want to use an editor who has studied the subject and has experience in this area. If you need editing for marketing publications for financial products, an editor who understands compliance issues can be more helpful than an editor with no background knowledge.

Although some editors will specialise in one area, many Melbourne editors will be comfortable editing all types of business documents and publications, such as brochures, proposals, letters, reports and websites.

Like us, many Melbourne editors provide their services Australia wide. With email and phone contact it’s simple to complete editing projects over long distances. We have provided editing to organisations in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Darwin, Hobart, Adelaide and many locations in between.

Choosing the Right Melbourne Editing Service for Your Needs

Finding sources of Melbourne editors is the easy part. You’ll want to do some homework when it comes to finding the Melbourne editing service that meets your needs.

Here are a few questions you should ask when selecting a Melbourne editing service.

·        What areas do you specialise in? You might need an editor with special skills or knowledge. Ask editors if they have the educational background and experience to edit your material. Does the editor need to know certain computer programs besides Microsoft Word  – such as Quark, InDesign or Adobe Acrobat Pro.

·        What have you edited in the past, and for whom? Past projects and clients can tell you a lot about Melbourne editing service providers. It can help to see a client list and samples of editing work before you make a decision.

Sound knowledge of spelling and grammar is a prerequisite for good editing, but much more is required. We have found that long-time English teachers aren’t necessarily good editors. Without experience in editing they don’t know some of the basics of editing process. For example, some English teachers have approached us for freelance editing work, but they didn’t have essential knowledge – not even knowing what a style guide was or how to use the Track Changes function in Word.

What Type of Editing Do You Need?

It’s important to understand your needs when looking for editing in Melbourne. Many people ask us for proofreading when they really need editing. In one of our previous editing blog posts (Editing and Proofreading – What’s the Difference?) we explain the difference between substantive editing, copy editing and proofreading. If you ask for proofreading and really need copy editing, you might not get what you need. Read the editing blog post to learn how substantive editing, copy editing and proofreading differ.

Provide a Sample of Your Text When Enquiring about Editing

Finally, when you make an enquiry for editing in Melbourne, have a sample of your work ready. Seeing an example of the text that needs editing will help the editor understand what is required and quote for the project. We get many enquiries for editing quotations when we haven’t seen the document. Would you ask a mechanic for a quotation to fix your car when he hasn’t seen it? He’ll need to see your vehicle before he can tell you what needs to be repaired and the estimated time required. The amount of editing required will depend on the quality of the writing and many other factors. So it’s essential that an editor sees your work before providing an editing quotation.

You Can Find the Right Melbourne Editing Service

Finding the right Melbourne editing service for your needs doesn’t have to be challenging. By using the resources outlined in this editing blog post and asking the right  questions, you’ll be able to find the best Melbourne editing service for your needs.

We welcome your comments and questions.

Michael

What’s the Recommended Format for Dot Point Series (also called bullet lists and bulleted lists)?

We gave our Better Business Writing presentation at a non-profit organisation last week. The writers in the audience had questions about the correct way to structure bulleted lists (these are also called dot point series and bullet lists). This is an important editing and proofreading issue that comes up in many forms of business writing.

The following styles for bullet lists are recommended in the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers. These styles are used and accepted by government departments and businesses throughout Australia. The Chicago Manual of Style, which is used in the United States, has different recommendations for structuring bulleted lists. If you’re writing for audiences or organisations outside Australia, you will want to research other conventions for bullet lists.

The first example shows how you structure a list where the points are complete sentences.

Example 1 – Bulleted Lists with Complete Sentences

The committee came to two important conclusions:

• Officers from the department should investigate the feasibility of developing legislated guidelines for future investigations.
• Research should be funded in the three priority areas.

You can see that both sentences are capitalised and have full stops (periods) at the ends.

When you have sentence fragments, as in the next example, you only punctuate the final point with a full stop. Since the points aren’t full sentences, they aren’t capitalised. Also, it’s no longer the common style in Australia to use semi-colons or commas at the end of each point.

Example 2 – Bulleted Lists with Sentence Fragments

The Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers gives the following example of how to punctuate bulleted lists when the bulleted points are sentence fragments.

Assistance is available in several forms:

• monetary assistance
• equipment or environmental modifications
• advisory services.

When you have sentence fragments, make sure they are consistent. The following example from a training manual we edited shows inconsistent bullet points.

Example 3 – Bulleted Lists with Inconsistent Structure

Carry out the following tasks by completing the appropriate reporting form to:

• describe what happened
• describe your concern
• reporting any action taken
• suggestions for future action.

The first two points are correct because they flow from the lead-in phrase. The third and fourth points don’t match the structure. After editing, all points fit with the lead-in.

Carry out the following tasks by completing the appropriate reporting form to:

• describe what happened
• describe your concern
• report any action taken
• suggest future action.

When a sentence follows a sentence fragment in a list to explain a point, you don’t put a full stop at the end of that sentence.

Example 4 – Bulleted Lists with Explanatory Sentences

Assistance is available in several forms:

• monetary assistance. Income support and specialist disability allowances fall into this category
• equipment or environmental modifications
• advisory services.

Although ‘Income support and specialist disability allowances fall into this category’ is a complete sentence, you don’t use a full stop until the end of the list.

The Style manual for authors, editors and printers gives more information on structuring dot point series (also called bullet lists and bulleted lists). If you do a lot of editing and proofreading (and live in Australia), it’s a good idea to get this book.

US readers should refer to The Chicago Manual of Style for recommended styles for bulleted lists.

We welcome your comments and suggestions. We’re happy to answer your questions on copywriting, business writing, speech writing, editing and proofreading.

Michael

We receive many enquiries about our editing and proofreading services. There is often confusion about the definitions of editing and proofreading. Sometimes people enquire about proofreading when they really need editing. At other times people ask us about editing when they might only need proofreading.

In order to clarify the differences between editing and proofreading we’ll explain the terms in this post.

The Differences between Editing and Proofreading (the short answer)

Editing encompasses a range of activities in preparing a document or manuscript for publication – these include copy editing, structural editing (also called substantive editing) and proofreading.

So proofreading is part of the editing process. It’s the final step before going to press or publishing on the web. Text at the proofreading stage should already have been through copy editing and structural editing. But sometimes we receive requests for proofreading when more extensive editing is required.

It’s best to do the copy editing and structural editing when the text is still in a word processing format, such as Microsoft Word. Providing copy editing and structural editing when the text is in a design program format (such as Quark or InDesign) or a PDF document can be complicated and problematic.

Types of Editing (the long answer)

For a more detailed answer about the difference between editing and proofreading we’ll look at the Australian Style manual for authors, editors and printers, which gives a good summary of the scope of tasks involved in each level of editing.

Substantive Editing

Substantive editing concentrates on the content, structure, language and style of a document. Some restructuring and rewording might also be done in the interests of accessibility, clarity, a cohesive style and tone, and a tighter reader focus. Contribution to, or assessment of, concepts for the proposed design, illustration, delivery format and usability criteria, is also generally part of a substantive editing brief.

Copy Editing

The purpose of copy editing is to remove mistakes, inconsistencies, or other infelicities of expression that could irritate or confuse readers―or embarrass the author. At the copy editing stage, the editor therefore concentrates on the details of language, spelling and punctuation; on achieving consistency of style and layout; and on checking references, illustrations, tables, headings, sequences, links and preliminary matter and endmatter.

Proofreading

The principal aims of proofreading are to verify that there are no discrepancies between the previously approved master copy and the formatted proof, that the document is complete and that the standard of presentation is suitable for publication.

The proofreader compares the approved version of a document with the first proof, checking each word, punctuation mark and graphic element. Each component of the document is also checked to ensure that everything has been included and is in the correct position. Each page is then further scrutinised to verify that the layout and type specifications have been accurately followed, and that the line breaks, page and screen lengths, and table and illustration placements are suitable.

This summary clearly shows that structural editing, copy editing and proofreading each involve distinct activities, and there are significant differences between each level of editing.

When people request quotations for proofreading services, when they really need structural editing, copy editing, or both, they might get an unrealistically low quotation for proofreading. This is why we ask to see a sample of the work to be edited before we provide a quotation for editing or proofreading.  

When you’re seeking editing and proofreading services, it’s important to define your terms correctly to get what you expect.

If you want to do your own editing and proofreading, I recommend that you purchase, and read, the Style manual for authors, editors and printers. It covers all aspects of the editing process and will help you make decisions when editing and proofreading your documents.

In future posts, we’ll look at structural editing, copy editing and proofreading in more detail.