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.

Welcome to our new blog.

In the coming months and years we’ll be covering a diverse range of topics on all forms of written communication for business. We’ll divide these into four main categories: copywriting, speech writing, business writing, editing and proofreading. During the next five weeks ─ through the end of January 2009 ─ we’ll be looking at copywriting.

There is a lot of confusion about copywriting. Many business people don’t have a clear understanding about copywriting and its importance. I’ve met small and medium business owners and managers who are surprised that an outside company or individual would offer to write copy for their business. Some are even surprised that such a service exists. One of their first questions is, ‘How can you write about our business if you’re not in our business?’ Others confuse the term copywriting with copyright, a legal concept for protecting intellectual property.

On the other hand, there are professional copywriters who have a very narrow definition of copywriting. They think that the only good copywriting is direct response copywriting. These are the copywriting gurus who offer to teach you copywriting in a weekend ─ for the special price of $6,000 for a three-day course. You’ll learn all the copywriting secrets and become tremendously successful in a very short time.  

In the coming months I’ll cover copywriting from the ground up. The first step will be to give you a solid definition of copywriting. Then we’ll look at the different types of copy to determine which style is best for your product, your service and your organisation.

 See you soon!