Not sure which editorial service you need? I can help
Maybe your team writes in multiple languages, and/or your publications have multiple authors. Maybe English isn't everyone's first language and you’re concerned that inconsistencies will undermine the credibility of otherwise solid research.
You know your publications would benefit from another pair of eyes to make them clearer, more consistent and coherent, but you’re not sure where to turn or what editorial service you need.
Even the terminology itself can be confusing. Not many people know the difference between editing, copy-editing and proofreading, or between translation, transcreation, and localisation. And many people don’t know whether I translate into or out of English.
Fear not! I’m naturally curious and happy to take the time to understand your goals, audience and challenges. I’ll ask you some guiding questions, review your materials, and recommend the right service for you, whether that's proofreading, copy-editing, substantive editing, developmental editing, or perhaps a translation, if you have a document in French, Spanish or Portuguese.
Real-world examples of customer dilemmas
It happens all the time. Clients come to me thinking they need one service, but after discussing their goals and readership with me, we discover they actually need an additional or different service. Or a combination of services. And that's completely fine – understanding the nuances of accessibility, translation, and plain language services isn't your area of expertise. It's mine.
My clients are experts in their fields, whether that’s research, development and humanitarian work, policy, or education. I don’t expect them to also be experts in language services; that’s my department. It’s my job to be curious enough to ask them the right questions about their organisation and what they’re trying to achieve, and advise them on which service(s) would help them.
Sometimes, customers are pretty good at writing in English, so a full translation service may not be necessary. They may feel confident enough to write the content in English themselves and just need a native English speaker to refine it, in which case my copy-editing service would be the most cost-effective option.
Here are some examples:
I recently worked with an NGO client that approached me because they wanted their website to be multilingual. Their first translated language would be English, knowing that would help them reach the widest possible audience. But then they realised that, for them, reaching a wider reach was also about communicating their values to people with learning disabilities or lower literacy levels.
After we’d discussed their goals in more depth, we concluded they would benefit from an easy-read version alongside the English translation, which would make their content more accessible.
Another client booked me to do a ‘quick proofread’ of an evaluation report but when I reviewed the document, I realized it needed a copy-edit, which would address inconsistencies in terminology, formatting issues, and structural problems that a proofread alone wouldn't fix. The problem? They didn’t have the budget for a full copy-edit. We adjusted the scope to what’s known as ‘proof-editing’, which comes somewhere in between the two. Better to have that than a proofread that would leave significant issues unaddressed.
A further example is a client who had a document in French, Spanish or Portuguese that they couldn’t read themselves because they don’t speak those languages. But they have confidentiality concerns about using AI or uploading the document for machine translation. At the same time, a full translation of every paragraph would be overkill and over budget, so they would like to book me for précis writing (a summary in English of the source language content).
How I help narrow things down
When you contact me to enquire about working together, I ask you some key questions:
Who is your audience? (Donors? Policymakers? Communities? Subject-matter experts? The general public?)
What action do you want them to take?
What format is your content in? (Report? Website? Funding proposal? Campaign materials?)
What's already working/not working with your current version?
What are your constraints? (Timeline? Budget? House style requirements?)
I’m not just going through the motions when I ask these questions – they genuinely help me understand what you really need, so I can recommend the most appropriate and cost-effective solution.
What you get from me
Honest advice
Once I’ve worked through these questions, I’ll give you honest advice about what will actually work, in the most efficient possible way. I won’t try to upsell you a service you don’t need. If proofreading is going to be enough for your needs and budget, I’ll tell you.
If you’re not even sure your content needs a ‘done for you’ service, why not talk to me about more of a ‘done with you’ approach where I provide a report with my recommendations for improving it yourself first. Or, I could evaluate your text and list the kinds of things I would do in the edit.
You-focused processes
When I work on your content, whether we’ve agreed that I’ll be doing a translation, substantive edit, copy-edit or proof-edit for you, I’ll approach it with a strategic mindset. This means I’ll do more than apply mechanical edits; I'll consider your audience, your goals, and the best way to help your readers understand and act on your message.
An inquisitive mindset
I will never simply wade in and change things in your content for the sake of it, or remove or alter sector-specific terminology. I understand the concepts and terminology used in the development sector, and know when a term is correct and not correct. If I don’t know, I use a wealth of trusted sources to find out.
Someone who checks, and checks again
A big part of my job is, of course, about being eagle-eyed: dotting all the i's, crossing all the t's, and ensuring consistency throughout. I review documents multiple times to catch errors that others might miss, and I always triple-check style guides to make sure I’m following your preferences, not mine.
Just ask me
You don’t need to be a communications expert to get the right solution for you. Your time, energy and headspace should go into the work you do; I’m here to take all the linguistic technicalities off your plate.
If you're not sure what you need, let's talk. I'll ask the right questions to figure out what will actually help you.
No jargon, no pressure, no assumptions that you should already know this stuff.