You’ve written a killer research paper or maybe the next Great American (or British or Canadian or…) Novel, and now you’re ready to submit it for grading or for publication—but wait! Has your work been professionally edited?
“Why do I need a professional editor? My word processing program has a spell/grammar check—isn’t that enough?” you ask suspiciously.
Not really. Many times, spell/grammar checks are inconsistent, they can often miss really obvious mistakes, and they frequently suggest horribly wrong “corrections.” A human eye is best for the final edit of your document, and a professional editor is the best person for that job.
Why? Consider this. Professional editors are those annoying people who find grammar and spelling mistakes in books they’re reading for pleasure, as well as in magazines, journals, newspapers—pretty much anything they set eyes on—without even trying. They just can’t help themselves: the errors leap off the page at them.
Further, they’re the folks who, after reading a paragraph, will say, “That’s nice, but you know, wouldn’t it be better to put that paragraph before this one? And by the way, if you move that sentence over here and rephrase this one, it’ll read much more smoothly. Try wording it like this…”
What’s more, professional editors know the various style manuals used by academia, professional journals and so forth, and can make sure your paper meets whatever style manual your professor or journal prefers. Need all citations and references done in MLA format when you’re more familiar with Turabian?
Turn the paper over to a professional editor, who can correct all your citations and references to the required style. When your grade depends on perfection (or as close to it as any human can manage), you want to call in the big guns!
Understand, however, that no truly professional editor is going to do all your work for you: your paper or novel or whatever other document you submit for editing must be complete. Editors don’t do your research; they don’t write your paper; they don’t dig up references for you. What they do is take YOUR work and make it better through rewording awkward phrases or sentences, moving entire paragraphs around, correcting grammar and punctuation, and sometimes asking questions or making comments that force you to re-evaluate a conclusion or a scene—this is what makes them professionals!
After spending hours, maybe weeks or months, laboring over your written creation, don’t put blind faith in computer spell/grammar checks. Hire a professional editor through a firm such as FirstEditing (www.firstediting.com) and know that your work has been given the attention to detail that it deserves.
Tags: Professional Editor, Submitting for Publication, Technical Editing
It’s good, it’s useful (as usual), actionable and concise. Love it.